Intelligence agencies have reportedly identified the masked jihadi who beheaded American journalist James Foley in the Islamic State propaganda video that began circulating last week. It is believed that the man who has been identified is the former British rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, whose stage name was L. Jinny.

Who Killed James Foley?

“The MI5 [British intelligence agency] investigation into the man behind James Foley’s murder is ongoing, but they have managed to identify the masked British jihadist who can be seen in the video holding a knife to his throat,” a police intelligence source told The Sunday Times of London.

While the terrorist has reportedly been fingered, no intelligence agent has gone on the record to name Bary as the culprit. The British ambassador to the Uniter States, Peter Westmacott, stated that investigaors are “close” to identifying the jihadi responsible on Meet the Press Sunday. Westmacott, who estimates that 500 Brits have joined the Islamic State, calls it “a betrayal of all that we stand for.”

Abdel Bary’s Transition To Terrorist

Social media indicates that Bary decided to leave music in favor of the Islamic extremist group sometime last summer. In July 2013, he wrote on Facebook, “The Unknown mixtape with my bro tabanacle will be the last music I’m ever releasing. I have left everything for the sake of Allah.”

L. Jinny before he left rap for the Islamic State

Less than a year later in June 2014, Bary, embedded within ISIL, tweeted, “The lions are coming for you soon you filthy kuffs [infidels]. Beheadings in your own backyard soon.” A month later in August, Bary tweeted a picture of himself holding a severed head in Iraq. Following the graphic image, the jihadi’s Twitter account was suspended.

Bary, who is thought to be John the Beatle/Jalier, the leader of a group of four British jihadis, is the son of Egyptian militant Adel Abudul Bary. His father was charged in connection to the Al Qaeda bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 that took the lives of 224 people. He was extradited to the U.S. in 2012.

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