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'Boy dubbed 'Jihadi Junior' may be UK-based terrorist's son'

January 05, 2016 00:09 IST

A little boy seen in a new Islamic State video which warned Britain of attacks in future may be the son of a female terrorist from east London, according to a media report.

Grace Dare, who was brought up in the United Kingdom by a Christian family of Nigerian descent before being radicalised online as "Khadija", may be the mother of the little black boy who is seen pointing into the distance and calling for the killing of "unbelievers" in the 10-minute video released on Sunday, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

Dare, an IS member who has in the past expressed a wish to become the first woman to behead a hostage, made her way to Syria in 2012 and married a Swede known as Abu Bakr, who is thought have been killed since.

The little boy, dubbed "Jihadi Junior" by British media, is dressed in camouflage and a black headscarf with an IS logo on it and bears a clear resemblance to Dare's son Isa.

On last July, Grace "Khadija" Dare, 22, had posted a picture on social media of Isa aiming an AK-47 automatic rifle that he seemed only just big enough to lift, the newspaper claims alongside the photograph.

Her mother Victoria said her daughter changed her first name to Khadija after she began attending the mosque. She said last year: "I still call her our Grace. I want her back in my life. She is the only child that I have and the devil took her away".

Khadija has since appeared on television documentaries about jihadi brides, saying she missed junk food and Chinese takeaways, but said she would never return home.

She used social media to gloat about the beheading of the American journalist James Foley and said she wanted to be the first British woman to kill an IS hostage.

 

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