‘Jihadi John’s’ identity
shocks Britain ADVERTISING ‘Jihadi John’s’ identity
shocks Britain LONDON — The unmasking of Islamic State militant “Jihadi John” as a Londoner who had repeatedly been questioned by security services sent shock waves through Britain Friday, with Prime
‘Jihadi John’s’ identity
shocks Britain
LONDON — The unmasking of Islamic State militant “Jihadi John” as a Londoner who had repeatedly been questioned by security services sent shock waves through Britain Friday, with Prime Minister David Cameron stepping in to defend British spy craft.
Cameron tried to defuse criticism of Britain’s intelligence community, which had “Jihadi John” on its list of potential terror suspects for years but was unable to prevent him from traveling to Syria, where he has played a prominent role in grisly beheading videos.
Cameron did not mention “Jihadi John” or refer to his real identity: Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwait-born computer science graduate raised and educated in Britain. But he said the country’s spies make “incredibly difficult judgments” daily about how to pursue threats to national security and have broken up plots that would have caused immense damage.
Kurdish troops rout IS group
from key town
BEIRUT — Backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, Kurdish fighters fought their way Friday into a northeastern Syrian town that was a key stronghold of Islamic State militants, only days after the group abducted dozens of Christians in the volatile region, Syrian activists and Kurdish officials said.
The town of Tel Hamees in Syria’s northeastern Hassakeh province is strategically important because it links territory controlled by IS in Syria and Iraq.
Gunman kills 7, commits suicide
TYRONE, Mo. — A man who authorities say may have been unhinged by the death of his ailing mother killed seven people and then took his own life in a house-to-house shooting rampage that wiped out a swath of this tiny town in the Missouri Ozarks.
Joseph Jesse Aldridge, 36, carried out the killings with a .45-caliber handgun Thursday night or early Friday at four homes in Tyrone, the no-stoplight community of about 50 people where he lived with his mother, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
Stocks slip after weaker growth
February proved to be a strong month for U.S. stocks, even though it ended in downbeat fashion.
Major stock indexes closed lower on Friday, capping a week of subdued trading that still delivered a couple of new highs for the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard &Poor’s 500 index. It also brought the Nasdaq composite within striking distance of its March 2000 high.
The Nasdaq notched the biggest monthly gain at 7.1 percent. But the S&P 500’s 5.5 percent performance marked its best monthly increase since October 2011, and a turnaround from its 3.1 percent slide in January. The Dow rose 5.6 percent for the month.
By wire sources
