A key Islamic State recruiter who offered cash incentives to teenage girls via a UK-based cell exposed in The Times has been killed fighting in Syria, his wife has said.
The jihadist, calling himself Abu Abbas al-Lubnani, was killed fighting for Isis in Hasakah, Syria, according to his wife, known as Umm Muthanna.
A three-month undercover investigation by this newspaper centred on Lubnani’s online grooming exposed a network that led back to the UK, where a husband and wife were sent to deliver cash to two fictional teenage girls to fund travel to Syria to marry jihadists.
Attributed to his wife, a statement appeared on an Isis Twitter account earlier this week. It read: “My husband Abu Abbas Al Lubnani rahimahullah [may Allah have mercy on him] got shahadah in #Hasakah. Make du’a for Allah to accept him amongst the shuhada.”
The final message from Lubnani on his own account, dated July 15, referred to the battle. He wrote: “Fierce battles in Al Barakah (Al Hasakah) between soldiers of Rahman and soldiers of Shaytan. Keep us in your Du’aa [prayers].”
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The Times has passed evidence to Scotland Yard’s counterterrorism command and the cell is under investigation.
Posing as “Aisha”, 17, and “Fatima”, 19, reporters were able to pass a stringent vetting process over weeks maintaining online identities before Lubnani sent them his own verification. A message was received containing an image of the jihadist in a mask with an AK47 rifle holding a piece of paper that bore the girls’ Twitter handles. The image was taken in Raqqa, Isis’s self-styled capital.
A meeting was arranged in east London and a white Muslim convert with a red beard arrived with a woman and young girl, believed to be his wife and daughter. Reporters on the scene verified that the couple had arrived to meet them by messaging Lubnani, who relayed messages moving them to new meeting points. They were not approached for security reasons.