An image grab taken from a video released by the Islamic State and identified by private terrorism monitor SITE Intelligence Group on September 2, 2014 purportedly shows a masked militant holding a knife and gesturing as he speaks to the camera in a desert landscape before beheading 31-year-old US freelance writer Steven Sotloff.(Photo: HO, AFP/Getty Images)
The Islamic State militant known as "Jihadi John," who has been seen in videos of hostages being beheaded, has been named as Mohammed Emwazi by the BBC and the Washington Post.
The BBC said Emwazi, believed to be a Kuwaiti-born British man from west London, was known to British security services, who chose not to disclose his name earlier for operational reasons.
Emwazi has appeared in videos showing the killings of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, U.S. medic Abdul-Rahman Kassig and Britons David Haines and Alan Henning.
He also appeared in a video last month with Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, who were later killed.
The Washington Post said Emwazi, who comes from a well-to-do family, graduated from college with a degree in computer programming.
He is believed to have traveled to Syria around 2012, before joining the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, the paper reported.
In a statement Richard Walton, of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, said he would not confirm any identities "or give an update on the progress of this live counter-terrorism investigation."
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