Woolwich gangster identified as 4th ISIS terrorist

A terrorist who posed with an AK-47 and vowed to 'wed' bullets with the 'Americans and British' in a chilling video shot on a Samsung phone which was shared by four British Jihadis in Syria has been named as one of the 'Woolwich Boys' drug gang. 

In May, footage from the Samsung Galaxy smartphone revealed a chilling insight into the lives of four men - all now dead - as they travelled to the Raqqa in Syria in 2013, the former 'capital' of ISIS. 

Three of the men had already been identified - British Choukri Ellekhlifi, 22, Fatlum Shalaku, 20, and Muhammad Mehdi Hassan, 19 - and the fourth man has now been identified as Abdullah Hassan, one of the 20 men linked to the notorious 'Woolwich Boys' drug gang who are believed to have travelled abroad for Jihad, the Sunday Times revealed.

The four were suspected to have owned the Samsung smartphone on which Hassan - previously unidentified - had vowed in one video: 'These bullets will be wedded with your bodies, Americans, British, French … we are here. Allah will give us victory'

In another, the four filmed each other jumping into an abandoned swimming pool in a luxury property before narrating their own Sir David Attenborough-style documentary on the Syrian wildlife they encountered.

The footage found on the phone had been downloaded to a hard drive and was later found by anti-Isis forces in eastern Syria. 

Hassan was also seen in another video firing bullets at a makeshift shooting range near Raqqa. 

However, despite Hassan's appearance as a hardened, merciless terrrorist in the video, the hatred on display is hard to identify with those who remember him growing up in Woolwich, south-east London.

Although it is not clear if Hassan was born in Britain or arrived with members of his family as refugees from Somalia, his Facebook profile shows his love for British TV.

He lists comedy programmes including Only Fools and Horses and Never Mind the Buzzcocks among his favourites.

One photo taken on the Milne estate in Woolwich in 2013 show Hassan smiling in a blue denim shirt; another shows him posing in a Converse t-shirt and sunglasses.

Sources told the Sunday Times that it was around this time that Hassan got involved with the Woolwich Boys, a gang heavily involved in county lines drug dealing.

Michael Adebowale, one of the men who killed fusilier Lee Rigby near Woolwich's army barracks in 2013, has also been linked with the same gang. 

It is thought to have boasted around 300 members and associates and is known to have been a target for Islamist hate preachers who wanted to make converts out of vulnerable criminals.

One reformed former gangster said he knew of 16 men who went to fight in war zones in the cause of 'jihad' - he added that all were now dead.

According to ConnectFutures, which aims to turn young people away from extremism, police believe as many as 20 people from the Woolwich area may have travelled to fight in Syria. 

Hassan is believed to have left for the Middle East in 2015 - he changed his Facebook profile picture in February of that year to one of him wearing Islamic robes, while his cover photo depicted a mosque in Mosul, Isis's main stronghold at the time.

Hassan is thought to have been killed before the end of the year, but Why was Hassan and his gang allowed to exist and gain "notoriety" in the first place?