극단주의 무장조직 ‘이슬람국가’(IS)가 외국인 인질 참수 영상에 잇따라 등장해 ‘지하디 존’으로 악명 높은 영국인 대원 무함마드 엠와지의 사망을 공식 확인했다.
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(Yonhap) |
IS는 20일 발간한 영문 선전잡지 ‘다비크’ 13호에서 엠와지가 무인기 공습으로 사망했다는 사실을 밝힌 일종의 ‘부고’ 기사를 실었다.
미군은 지난해 11월 12일 IS의 수도 격인 시리아 락까에서 엠와지가 탄 차량을 무인기로 공습했으며, 공습 이튿날 사망이 거의 확실하다고 발표했다.
다비크는 엠와지의 본명 대신 ‘아부 무하립 알무하지르’라는 이름을 사용했으며 “아부 무하립은 이슬람력 1437년 무하람 29일(서기 2015년 11월12일) 락까 시에서 그가 탄 차량이 무인기의 공습을 받아 즉사함으로써 오랫동안 추구했던 순교를 마침내 이뤘다”고 밝혔다.
다비크는 “전세계에 ‘지하디 존’으로 알려진 아부 무하립은 아라비아 반도 북동부 (쿠웨이트)에서 태어났고 그의 어머니는 예멘 출신”이라며 엠와지의 출생과 전투 이력 등도 소개했다.
다비크는 엠와지가 영국 MI5(국내 정보국)의 감시에도 2012년 시리아로 잠입하는 데 성공했으며 당시 ‘알누스라전선’이란 이름으로 활동하던 IS에 가담해 이들리브와 락까 등 여러 전투에 참여했다고 밝혔다. 알카에다 시리아 지부인 알누스라전선과 IS는 알카에다 이라크지부(AQI)에서 갈라진 조직이다.
다비크는 엠와지가 “신자들에게 자비롭고 친절하며 관대했다”며 엠와지가 첩을 선물로 받자 “미혼인 부상한 형제에게 양보하는 데 주저하지 않았다”고 밝혔다.
쿠웨이트 출신인 엠와지는 6살 때 가족과 함께 영국 런던으로 이주한 20대 청년으로, 컴퓨터 프로그래밍을 공부하다 이슬람교도에 대한 영국 정부의 부당한 대우에 급진주의자로 전향한 것으로 알려졌다.
그는 지난 2014년 8월 미국인 제임스 폴리를 살해한 영상에 처음 등장한 이후 영국인 데이비드 헤인즈와 앨런 헤닝, 일본인 고토 겐지 등 여러 인질 살해 영상에서 검은 복면을 하고 영국 억양의 영어를 구사해 ‘지하디 존’이란 악명을 얻었다.
2013년 IS에 납치됐다 6개월 만에 풀려난 스페인 기자 하비에르 에스피노사는 그를 “인질들에게 참수 위협을 일삼는 사이코패스”라고 묘사하기도 했다.
이에 따라 미국과 영국 당국은 자국민 살해에 직접적으로 관여한 지하디 존의 행방을 찾는 데 정보력을 집중했다.
공습 직전 미국 정부는 영국 정부에 작전 계획을 통보했으며, 엠와지가 참수한 인질들의 유족에게도 이 사실을 알린 것으로 전해졌다. (연합)
IS acknowledges death of ‘Jihadi John’ in magazine
The Islamic State group has acknowledged the death of the masked militant known as “Jihadi John,” who appeared in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages, the SITE Intelligence Group reported Tuesday.
SITE, which monitors terrorist activity, reported that IS published a “eulogizing profile” of Jihadi John in its English-language magazine Dabiq on Tuesday. Jihadi John had been identified by the U.S. military as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British citizen.
“His harshness towards the kuffar (disbelievers) was manifested through deeds that enraged all the nations, religions, and factions of kufr, the entire world bearing witness to this,” said the English-language Dabiq in an article confirming that Emwazi was killed in a drone strike.
Army Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman, said in November that the Army was “reasonably certain” that a drone strike in Syria had killed Emwazi, who spoke in beheading videos with a British accent as he wielded a knife.
Separately, a U.S. official said three drones--two U.S. and one British--targeted the vehicle in which Emwazi was believed to be traveling in Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate in northern Syria. The official said the U.S. drone fired a Hellfire missile that struck the vehicle.
“Jihadi John” appeared in videos posted online by the Islamic State starting in August 2014 that depicted the beheadings of U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that she hadn't heard about the IS announcement but assumed Emwazi was dead following the Army's announcement last fall.
“It's good,” she said. “I'm glad that he's gone, but it doesn't bring back my son.''
Jodi Perras, a spokeswoman for the Kassig family in Indianapolis, said they had no comment on the news about Jihadi John.
In the gruesome videos, a tall masked figure clad in black and speaking in a British accent typically began with a political rant taunting the West and a kneeling hostage clad in an orange prison-style jumpsuit before him, then ended it holding an oversize knife in his hand with the headless victim lying before him in the sand. The videos don't make clear if he carried out the actual killings.
He also appeared as a narrator in videos of other beheadings, including the mass killing of captive Syrian government soldiers.
Emwazi was believed to be in his mid-20s when he was killed. He had been described by a former hostage as a psychopath who enjoyed threatening his Western captives.
Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa, who was held by the IS in Syria for more than six months after his abduction in September 2013, said Emwazi would explain precisely how the militants would carry out a beheading.
The hostages nicknamed three British-sounding captors “the Beatles,” with “Jihadi John” a reference to John Lennon, Espinosa said.
Emwazi was born in Kuwait and spent part of his childhood in the poor Taima area of Jahra before moving to Britain as a boy, according to news reports quoting Syrian activists who knew the family. He attended state schools in London, then studied computer science at the University of Westminster.
The Dabiq article said he became involved in jihadi activity around the time of the 2005 attacks on the London transit system, and came under the scrutiny of the British intelligence agency MI5. It said he arrived in Syria in the latter part of 2012, and was later wounded while fighting with Islamic State forces in Syria.
Dabiq claimed that Emwazi displayed his “kindness and generosity” by giving away a concubine he had received as a gift to an unmarried injured IS fighter. (AP)
