A high-profile Irish Islamist who was once arrested for threatening to kill President Barack Obama during a trip to Dublin has blown himself up in a suicide attack for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) outside Mosul, according to the jihadist group.
Terence Kelly, a Dubliner known as “Taliban Terry” or “Khalid Kelly”, was killed after he drove an armoured truck laden with explosives at an Iraqi militia group on Friday, Isil said in a statement.
The jihadist group
released a picture of the bearded Kelly, who was in his late 40s,
standing in front of a vehicle and clutching a Kalashnikov rifle. It
referred to him by the nom de guerre Abu Osama Irelandi.
Another picture purported to show the moment Kelly’s vehicle exploded in the village west of Mosul, Isil’s last stronghold inside Iraq.
Kelly’s death brings a violent end to the Irish nurse’s long and troubled journey through radical Islam.
He was born in Dublin and raised Catholic but took a job in a Saudi Arabian hospital in the 1990s, where he was arrested for illegally making alcohol in his flat. While serving out his sentence in a Saudi prison, he converted to Islam.
“I'd been inside for four weeks and was at my lowest point when I was given the Koran in English,” he told the Independent in 2004.
“Someone explained it to me. And then it was very quick. I saw that God was the creator, the provider, the commander, and the legislator for mankind. It was all suddenly very clear. I felt freer than I had ever been, even though I was in prison.”
He was eventually released and came to Britain, where he became a high-profile Islamist who called for attacks on the UK and became close with Anjem Choudary, the agitator who was jailed earlier this year for supporting Isil.
Source Telegraph News
He was born in Dublin and raised Catholic but took a job in a Saudi Arabian hospital in the 1990s, where he was arrested for illegally making alcohol in his flat. While serving out his sentence in a Saudi prison, he converted to Islam.
“I'd been inside for four weeks and was at my lowest point when I was given the Koran in English,” he told the Independent in 2004.
“Someone explained it to me. And then it was very quick. I saw that God was the creator, the provider, the commander, and the legislator for mankind. It was all suddenly very clear. I felt freer than I had ever been, even though I was in prison.”
He was eventually released and came to Britain, where he became a high-profile Islamist who called for attacks on the UK and became close with Anjem Choudary, the agitator who was jailed earlier this year for supporting Isil.
He was also a member of Al-Muhajiroun, a British-based Salafist group that was banned in 2005 shortly after the July bombings.
Kelly appeared regularly on British and Irish television and in 2011 was arrested for appearing to threaten the US president ahead of a visit to Dublin. He was released without charge.
He later began to speak out in support of Isil and defended the jihadist group's policy of beheading aid workers and journalists.
His suicide bombing appears to have had little impact on the advance into Mosul. The Shia militia known as the Popular Mobilization Units captured the village on Friday afternoon, shortly after Kelly blew himself up.
Kelly appeared regularly on British and Irish television and in 2011 was arrested for appearing to threaten the US president ahead of a visit to Dublin. He was released without charge.
He later began to speak out in support of Isil and defended the jihadist group's policy of beheading aid workers and journalists.
His suicide bombing appears to have had little impact on the advance into Mosul. The Shia militia known as the Popular Mobilization Units captured the village on Friday afternoon, shortly after Kelly blew himself up.
Source Telegraph News
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