Woolwich Gang... From Drugs in London to ISIS in Raqqa

Abdullah Hassan, from Woolwich, London, fled to Syria in 2015 and joined ISIS, it has been reported
Abdullah Hassan, from Woolwich, London, fled to Syria in 2015 and joined ISIS, it has been reported
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Woolwich Gang... From Drugs in London to ISIS in Raqqa

Abdullah Hassan, from Woolwich, London, fled to Syria in 2015 and joined ISIS, it has been reported
Abdullah Hassan, from Woolwich, London, fled to Syria in 2015 and joined ISIS, it has been reported

After the first three men were identified as Choukri Ellekhlifi, 22, Fatlum Shalaku, 20, and Muhammad Mehdi Hassan, 19 – the fourth man has now been revealed.

He is Abdullah Hassan, from Woolwich, South East London, according to The Sunday Times.

Hassan was one of 20 men linked to notorious drug gang the Woolwich Boys who traveled to Syria to join ISIS’ so-called caliphate.

That is the highest concentration of terrorists to emerge from a single area of the UK, the reports says.

In May, footage emerged from a Samsung phone which had been passed from one Brit jihadi to another in Syria and Iraq.

The clips, found on a hard drive by anti-ISIS forces, documented the lives of the brainwashed recruits from their initial optimism to their harrowing, blood-soaked finals days.

Hassan is shown firing guns at a shooting range in the terror group’s capital of Raqqa alongside two young men from Sweden and Australia.

The Brit then turns to the camera and, in a strong London accent, talks about murdering Western soldiers.

He said: “We are going to wed our bullets with the Americans and the British, inshallah [God willing].”

"These bullets will be wedded with your bodies. Americans, British, French ... we are here. Allah will give us victory."

Hassan, also known as Adbi, appeared to have a happy childhood growing up in Woolwich, reports The Sunday Times.

It is unclear whether he was born in the UK or came over as a child with his parents who were refugees from Somalia.

His Facebook profile shows he had normal interests for a young Brit including liking TV comedy shows such as Only Fools and Horses and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

In 2013, his life is believed to have taken a sinister turn after he reportedly fell in with the infamous drugs gang in the area.

That same year, Fusilier Lee Rigby was murdered near a London army barracks by two deranged militants– one of whom, Michael Adebowale, was linked to the Woolwich Boys.

The gang, which has previously boasted 300 members, was targeted by Islamic hate preachers seeking to corrupt vulnerable young criminals in the city.

One ex-member, who did not want to be named, said the brainwashed gangsters were made to feel part of a “brotherhood” by the men who groomed them for militancy.

Speaking in a video by ConnectFutures, a deradicalization group, he said: "We were extreme in the streets, and when I came to the religion [Islam] we just went from one extreme to another."

The reformed criminal, who now helps young people, said he knew of 16 men from Woolwich who traveled to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.

He added: "Every single one of them died."

Police believe as many as 20 men from the area traveled to the war zone, ConnectFutures says.

Hassan traveled to Syria in early 2015 and is believed to have died within six months of joining the caliphate.

On February 3 of that year, he changed his Facebook profile picture to an image of him wearing Islamic robes along with a cover photo of a mosque in Mosul, Iraq.

According to the Sunday Times, the firing range video was filmed that month.

Locals in a barber shop in Woolwich, where Hassan used to get his hair cut, said news of his death shocked the community.

One said: “We heard that he died not long after arriving in Syria.

"It's still a shock. He seemed a nice guy; very quiet and under the radar not the type of person who would do something like this."



Top Iranian Generals Killed in the Israeli Attack

Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri speaks during the International Conference on the Legal-International Claims of the Holy Defense in the capital Tehran on February 23, 2021. (AFP)
Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri speaks during the International Conference on the Legal-International Claims of the Holy Defense in the capital Tehran on February 23, 2021. (AFP)
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Top Iranian Generals Killed in the Israeli Attack

Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri speaks during the International Conference on the Legal-International Claims of the Holy Defense in the capital Tehran on February 23, 2021. (AFP)
Iranian Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri speaks during the International Conference on the Legal-International Claims of the Holy Defense in the capital Tehran on February 23, 2021. (AFP)

Israel targeted leading members of Iran's armed forces on Friday during its unprecedented onslaught hitting military and nuclear targets across the country.

Here is what we know about the two top figures killed:

General Mohammad Bagheri was the highest-ranking officer in the Iranian armed forces and was responsible for overseeing the army, the Revolutionary Guards and Corps and the country's ballistic missile program.

In office since 2016, Bagheri worked directly under the authority of supreme leader Ali Khamenei -- Iran's ultimate decision maker and the commander-in-chief of its armed forces.

As second in command, Bagheri held wide-ranging authority over much of Iran's military formations and appeared regularly on television in uniform, including notably at the inauguration of underground military bases.

He also played a key role in developing Iran's ballistic missile program.

The arsenal, originally developed to compensate for Iran's weak air force during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, significantly increased its range and precision over the years.

Israel has long viewed these capabilities as an existential threat from its sworn enemy and has twice been targeted by massive barrages fired by Iran at its territory.

"The Zionist enemy should know that it is nearing the end of its miserable life," Bagheri once declared, while referring to Israel as "a cancerous tumor".

In 2022, Bagheri stated that Iran was "more than self-sufficient" in arms and equipment, boasting that the country would become one of the world's top arms exporters if sanctions were lifted.

The general was placed under US sanctions during President Donald Trump's first term and later sanctioned by the European Union following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

At that time, Bagheri mocked the EU, suggesting it should use Iran's frozen assets to "buy coal" to heat itself in winter amid Russia's war in Ukraine aided by Iranian weapons.

Born in June 1960, Bagheri succeeded Hassan Firouzabadi, who had served as chief of staff of the armed forces for 26 years -- from 1989 to 2016 -- and had once accused Westerners of using lizards to spy on Iran.

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) head Hossein Salami delivers a speech during a ceremony marking the first death anniversary of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, in Tehran, Iran, 15 May 2025. (EPA)

Hossein Salami

Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami was a veteran officer close to supreme leader Khamenei and known for his tirades against Israel and its US ally.

"If you make the slightest mistake, we will open the gates of hell for you," the white-bearded general warned Tehran's arch foes during a tour of an underground missile base in January.

Born in 1960 in central Iran, Salami joined the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1980 at the start of the war launched by then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

He spent most of his career in the Guards, which was set up after the 1979 overthrow of the Western-backed shah to defend the goals of the revolution.

The force is now 125,000-strong grouping, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, although Iran has never released any official figure.

Salami rose through the ranks to become head of the Guards' air force division and was placed on Washington's sanctions blacklist.

He served as the corps' deputy commander for nine years before being promoted to the top job in 2019 as part of a major reshuffle.

Iran's revolutionary leader Khomeini had made support for the Palestinian cause a centerpiece of Tehran's foreign policy and Salami repeatedly alluded to calls for Israel to be wiped from the map.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should "learn to swim in the Mediterranean Sea" in readiness to flee, he said in a 2018 speech.

The IRGC played a central role in Iran's forward foreign policy in the Arab world, which saw Tehran-backed militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah lead Gaza and Lebanon into war with Israel.

The twin conflicts were accompanied by the first-ever direct exchanges of fire between Iran and Israel last year and were to lead to the much bigger wave of Israeli strikes on Iran on Friday, one of which killed Salami.