The killer of photojournalist James Foley is probably from London's East End, speaks with a "multicultural London English" accent, goes by the name "John" and is in charge of the English-speaking jihadists guarding foreign hostages,
The Guardian reported.
"This is significant because it signifies a turn towards threatening the west. They are saying we're going to come after you if you bomb us," Professor Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization at King's College London, told The Guardian.
He said British jihadists have been "beheading and torturing" for ISIS all along. "The significant thing is that this was an American and was connected to a direct message that 'we are targeting you.'"
Afzal Ashraf of the Royal United Services Institute told the newspaper that Muslims in Britain are motivated to join the extremists because of "what they perceive to be the U.S. bullying and domination of the Muslim world."
Some 500 Britons are said to be fighting with jihadist factions in Syria and Iraq, The Guardian said, citing counter-terrorism and linguistics experts it didn't identify.
"I do think we have to consider this as some sort of recruitment video, even though it's hard for us to fathom the appeal," Martha Crenshaw, a terrorism expert at Stanford University, told
The Christian Science Monitor.
The message to European Muslims, because it is delivered by a jihadist with a British accent is, "'I'm showing the world how tough I am, and you can be tough, too,'" she said.
"John" was the lead jihadist negotiator in bargaining over the ransom and release 11 ISIS hostages earlier this year. He also conducted Internet exchanges with the families of foreign hostages, the Guardian reported.
The captives referred to their team of British guards as "the Beatles."
Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit is trying to identify 'John' as is MI5 and the FBI.
The murdered photojournalist had been missing in war-ravaged Syria since 2012.
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