Jihadi Jack married into a top Islamic State family

British Islamist ‘Jihadi Jack’ Letts married into a ‘top’ ISIS family and has been playing down his status within the terror group, it has been claimed.

The 24-year-old Muslim convert from Oxfordshire, who declared himself an ‘enemy of Britain’ and fled to the Middle East to join ISIS, has already been stripped of his UK citizenship.

Now a former British soldier who fought ISIS has claimed that Letts married the daughter of an Iraqi tribal leader, who he has a son with, before being captured in northern Syria in 2017.

Alan Duncan, who fought ISIS alongside the Kurds, told The Sun that Letts ‘definitely’ married into a high-ranking family within the radical Islamist organisation.

Mr Duncan, who over the course of two years interviewed dozens of jailed jihadis for a documentary, said Letts has been downplaying his status within ISIS.

He said: ‘He definitely married into a top ISIS Iraqi family and that explains why he was down in Mosul.

‘The tribal leaders are what you would call Imans – as soon as a tribal leader gives his allegiance to ISIS he becomes an Emir. They basically become a leader in ISIS.

Mr Duncan, who is a former sniper in the British army, also questioned how the young terrorist ended up in northern Iraq despite being last pictured in Mosul Dam in 2015.

Letts travelled to Kuwait in 2014, telling his parents he wanted to improve his Arabic before he made his way to Syria.

Mr Duncan added that the terrorist is clearly higher in the organisation than he admits to.

Letts’s parents, organic farmer John Letts, 58, and Sally Lane, 57, a former Oxfam fundraiser, became the first British parents to be charged with terrorism offences after sending money to their son in Syria.

Despite police warnings, his parents sent him £223 in September 2015 and later tried to send a further £1,000.

Following an Old Bailey trial in June, they were found guilty of entering into a funding arrangement for terrorism purposes and given 15-month suspended sentences.

They said: ‘We’ve been convicted for doing what any parents would do if their child was in danger.’

Jack Letts is thought to be languishing in a Kurdish prison in Syria.

The Mail on Sunday revealed in August that he had been stripped of his British citizenship, sparking a diplomatic row with Canada because he had held dual UK and Canadian citizenship.

Letts is among more than 120 dual nationals who have been stripped of British citizenship since 2016.

International law prevents the Government from making people ‘stateless’ so the move can only be taken against those with two passports.

His father described the decision as a ‘kick in the gut’.

Source: Daily Mail