A John Moores student who joined ISIS has been killed in Syria

A Jihadi fighter and former John Moores student has been killed in Syria, according to reports.

Raphael Hostey, 23, studied Graphic Design but joined ISIS. He travelled to the Middle East with university friends  Mohammad Azzam Javeed and Anil Khalil Raoufi, who studied Mechanical Engineering.

Originally from Moss Side in Manchester, Hostey fought under the name Abu Qaqa al-Britani and was a a key figure in recruiting new ISIS members. He was nicknamed ‘al-Britani Afro’ because of his hairstyle.

Hostey was responsible for luring hundreds of British people to Syria, using Twitter as a means of communication.

Other former JMU students Javeed and Raoufi are believed to have died in 2014.

Under the pseudonym Abu Quqa, Hostey encouraged a potential female fighter to “come as soon as possible” on Tumblr.

He also wrote on Twitter before his account was suspended: “We don’t need any spies in ISIS because the sisters here talk enough as it is.”

The former JMU student’s death was first reported on Twitter, although the Foreign Office was unable to confirm it. He was said to have been killed in action by a number of fighters in Syria. Other British men are said to have been fatally injured in the same attack.

Shiraz Maher, a war studies lecturer at King’s College London, said that after Hostey was shot in the foot in December 2013, he became heavily involved in ISIS propaganda and recruitment, and that his death was “huge”.

He added: “The death of Abu Qaqa [Hostey] represents the end of another era of British fascism.”