Hope for justice in unmasking of Jihadi John
The unmasking of Jihadi John, the British-accented radical recorded gloating on video as he beheads hostages in Syria, is a welcome development in a conflict of great complexity and which has no end in sight.
The killer, it emerges, is a computing graduate whose family moved from Kuwait to London and who was by all accounts a model student at school and university.
Mohammed Emwazi’s black mask added a chilling element to Islamic State videos of the killings but if he thought it could hide his identity he was wrong.
What is worrying is that he travelled to the Syrian war zone despite being on a police and security services watchlist. He was one of a group of young Islamist extremists operating with impunity in London.
At least one of these with links to Emwazi and to al-Qaida is still at liberty in the city. Authorities, hemmed in by the country’s Human Rights Act, cannot deport him or many extremists like him who seek a liberal haven in Britain.
The revelations about Emwazi come as Islamic State faces increasing internal fissures and external pressure from the US-led coalition’s bombing raids.
Jihadist fighters were blasted out of the Syrian city of Kobane and the US is pinning some hope on a new alliance of Christian militia members and Kurdish fighters. Defectors from Islamic State have delivered internal documents and letters to the rival al-Nusra Front.
The burning to death of a captured Jordanian pilot by Islamic State was a huge and barbaric blunder. It horrified Jordanians and united the country behind its deployment of jets against Islamic State targets. Internally a hierarchy is developing within Islamic State, according to reports. At the top are Iraqis, followed by Syrians and then other foreigners.
Emwazi, by some accounts, is a fairly lowly operative but is valued for his language and communication skills.
Other young Westerners who signed up to fight for the cause have found themselves given lowly tasks. Many have reportedly been executed for wanting to return home.
But even if Islamic State’s advance has stalled in Syria and Iraq, it remains dangerous and its tentacles are spreading to Afghanistan and Libya. The latter has more significance for Europe.
Captured letters from Islamic State in Libya tell of plans for militants to sail to Europe among the flood of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Cells would then be set up to bring the war to the heart of Europe.
We may never know exactly how Emwazi’s identity was established but his unmasking is a significant win against an organisation in which leading figures value their secrecy.
The chances are now higher that Emwazi will face justice. Whether this is by capture and trial or by a coalition bombing raid — or even at the hands of his own side — is uncertain.
Defeating Islamic State will be a drawn-out process with much more suffering but we hope that when the end comes for Emwazi there will at least be some comfort for his victims.
