USA: Canadian jihadist, the voice of IS, sentenced to life

Canadian jihadist who was a key factor in the propaganda of the Islamic State (IS) organization, as he was the narrator in many of its videos, was sentenced yesterday Friday by the American judiciary to serve life in prison.

THE Mohammed Khalifaaged 39, born in Saudi Arabia, pleaded guilty in December to charges of “supporting” and “joining” a “terrorist organization that caused deaths”.

According to the indictment, he left Canada in 2013 to join IS in Syria. He quickly rose through the ranks in the organization’s self-proclaimed “caliphate,” which held territory in Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2019.

As of 2014, it did “key member” of the jihadist group’s propaganda core, mainly because he was fluent in English and Arabic.

The cell produced videos of executions of foreign hostages, including US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who were beheaded in 2014.

Mohammed Khalifa personally was the voice off (the off-camera narrator) in English of “several extremely violent IS videos”, including two titled “Flames of War”, the first of which was filmed in 2014 and the second in 2017 and in which executions of Syrian soldiers are recorded.

He is also said to have been the narrator of “recruitment videos”, featuring images of the group’s attacks in France and Belgium, intended to spur would-be jihadists into action.

In 2019, it was captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance in which the Kurds are the main component.

In an interview he gave to the Canadian television network CBC from his prison in Syria, Mohammed Khalifa, also known as Abu Ridwan al-Kannadi, did not show the slightest remorse for his actions. He said he would like to return to Canada with his wife and three children, but on the condition that he not face trial.

But in 2021 he was handed over by the GDR to the US authorities and joined the US.

RES-EMP

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