Mosul suicide bomber identified as Jamaican
Key Points(5)
- A suicide bomber from the Islamic State (IS) group was a Jamaican-born British citizen who was detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
- The British fighter who IS claimed detonated a suicide bomb against Iraqi forces outside Mosul was named in British media as Jamal al-Harith, who was detained at the United States base between 2002 and 2004.
- An image released by IS and published on Monday by the SITE Intelligence Group was confirmed as al-Harith by his brother Leon Jameson.
- A photograph shows him smiling, dressed in camouflage clothing and appearing to be sat in a vehicle with wires and switches in the background..
- Harith, a Muslim convert of Jamaican origin, who was born Ronald Fiddler, was jailed in Afghanistan by the ruling Taliban because he held a British passport.
A suicide bomber from the Islamic State (IS) group was a Jamaican-born British citizen who was detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The British fighter who IS claimed detonated a suicide bomb against Iraqi forces outside Mosul was named in British media as Jamal al-Harith, who was detained at the United States base between 2002 and 2004.
An image released by IS and published on Monday by the SITE Intelligence Group was confirmed as al-Harith by his brother Leon Jameson.
A photograph shows him smiling, dressed in camouflage clothing and appearing to be sat in a vehicle with wires and switches in the background..
Harith, a Muslim convert of Jamaican origin, who was born Ronald Fiddler, was jailed in Afghanistan by the ruling Taliban because he held a British passport.
After the regime was toppled he was arrested by US troops in early 2002 and sent to Guantanamo, where he alleged experienced beatings and inhumane treatment.
When he returned to Britain in 2004 he was briefly questioned by police and released without charge.
Harith reportedly travelled to Turkey and crossed into Syria in April 2014.
The following year his wife, Shukee Begum, travelled to Syria along with her five children in what she said was an effort to convince her husband to abandon IS.
Harith is numbered among several Jamaicans who have been linked to radical Islam and terrorism.
Shortly after the September 11 bombings in New York, another Jamaican, Richard Reid, attempted to blow up an airliner with a bomb in his shoe. He became known as the shoe Bomber.
Reid is now serving a life sentence in a Colorado prison.
Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal was deported from Britain to Jamaica after serving several years in prison there for inciting terrorism. Now domiciled in the land of his birth, el-Faisal, was also deported from Kenya after authorities there accused him of stirring up trouble.
