JMU student who joined ISIS has been ‘killed in Syria’

Raphael Hostey, who fought under the name Abu Qaqa al-Britani, is believed to have died in Syria in the last week.

ISIS jihadists jmu

The former graphic design student was one of the three Liverpool John Moores students from Manchester who travelled to Syria to become jihadist fighters in October 2013.

Hostey, who fought under the name of Abu Qaqa al-Britani, quickly became a key figure in recruiting new ISIS members from Britain and went on to lure hundreds of Brits to Syria.

The 23-year old was one of 700 Islamists considered dangerous by intelligence services and was a keen rapper in Manchester before travelling to Syria.

Raphael Hostey was a Graphics Design Student at Liverpool John Moores.

He is believed to have travelled to the Middle East with Mohamed Azzam Javeed and Anil Khalil Raoufi, both 20, last year.

Hostey and Raoufi went on to actively encourage others from Britain and around the wold to increase their ranks in postings on twitter.

Javeed and Raofi died fighting in 2014.

Hostey’s death was reported on Twitter by Amarnath Amarasingam, a post-doctoral researcher at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Mr Amarasingam said he was told by a number of fighters in Syria that Hostey had been killed in an air strike alongside three other Western Jihadists.

War studies lecturer at King’s College London, Shiraz Maher, said Hostey’s death was “huge”.

Mr Maher said that after Hostey was shot in the foot in December 2013, he became heavily involved in ISIS propaganda and recruitment.

He said: “The death of Abu Qaqa (Hostey) represents the end of another era of British fascism.”