Reports: ‘Jihadi John’ Relatives Under Surveillance in Kuwait
March 1, 2015Kuwaiti authorities are closely monitoring several relatives of “Jihadi John” who live and work in the Gulf emirate where the Islamic State executioner was born, press reports said Sunday.
A number of relatives of Mohammed Emwazi, named as the terrorist who has beheaded at least five Western hostages, are working in Kuwait and like him hold British citizenship, Al-Qabas newspaper reported.
“Security agencies have taken the necessary measures to monitor them round the clock,” the paper said, citing an “informed source.”
The daily did not say how many of Emwazi’s relatives are in Kuwait. Authorities have remained silent on the issue.
Al-Rai newspaper cited security sources as saying that Emwazi’s father, Jassem Abdulkareem, also a British national, is currently in Kuwait and is expected to be summoned by authorities.
Emwazi visited Kuwait several times, the last of them between January 18 and April 26, 2010, Al-Qabas said.
He arrived from the United Arab Emirates using his British passport to obtain a Kuwaiti entry visa.
A year later, he was denied entry to Kuwait after his name came up during investigations into attacks in Britain, the newspaper said.
Emwazi’s visits to Kuwait were largely of a social nature and he was briefly engaged to a stateless Kuwaiti resident, the paper added.
The Gulf emirate has tens of thousands of stateless residents known as bidoons. Emwazi’s family, who are of Iraqi origin, were among them.
They applied for naturalization but their names were removed from the list of prospective citizens because of allegations that they collaborated with the Iraqi army during its seven-month occupation of Kuwait in 1990-1991, Al-Qabas said.
Emwazi was born in Kuwait but moved to London in the early 1990s when he was a child and attended school and university in the British capital.
The Daily Telegraph reported that he went to school with two other boys who went on to become militants – Choukri Ellekhlifi, who was killed fighting in Syria, and Mohammed Sakr, killed fighting in Somalia.
It was also reported that Emwazi had contacts with the men responsible for failed attacks on London’s public transport system in 2005, two weeks after suicide bombings killed 52 people in the British capital.
The revelations add to the pressure on the security and intelligence agencies to explain why they did not act on their suspicions about Emwazi before he travelled to Syria.
Similar posts
-
Israel Is Held To A Higher Standard Than Any Country
April 25, 2024In the intricate tapestry of global affairs, one nation stands out for enduring scrutiny and condem...
-
Israel Has The Most Moral Military In The World
April 10, 2024In the heart of a region often riddled with conflict, Israel stands out not only for its technologi...
-
The Resilience of the Israeli People
April 2, 2024Visitors from around the world have seen Hamas's October 7th Massacre's destruction in southern Isr...
-
Israel: Small Size, Big Impact
March 21, 2024Nestled along the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, Israel is a land of immense historical sig...
-
Israelis Are Fighting For Their Lives
February 21, 2024By Jonathan S. Tobin The world looks a lot different from Kibbutz Kfar Aza than it does in the U...
-
Over 2 Million Arabs Live In Israel
January 23, 2024In the complex landscape of the Middle East, where diverse cultures and identities intersect, Israe...
-
'Fauda' Star Idan Amedi Injured Fighting in Gaza
January 8, 2024Despite the severity of his injuries, Amedi's father assured Israeli news channels that his life is...
-
Israel Is A Great Country To Live In
December 28, 2023Nestled at the crossroads of the Middle East, Israel stands as a vibrant and dynamic nation, offeri...