A British jihadi who blew himself up in Iraq this week while targeting coalition forces was paid £1 million ($1.25 million) in compensation from the UK government after being released from Guantanamo Bay.
Ronald Fiddler, originally from Manchester, joined IS in 2014 and changed his name to Jamal al-Harith.
Footage released after his death showed him smiling for the camera before heading off in a 4×4 packed with explosives. He gunned the car down a dirt track. A plume of smoke was subsequently seen. IS claimed he drove the vehicle into a military base outside Mosul, where a battle is raging between IS and Iraqi forces, causing multiple injuries.
Last night it was reported that the fanatic, a father of five aged 50, received his UK taxpayer-funded payout in 2010. It came after he was picked up by US troops in Afghanistan, where he had gone a month after 9/11.
He was held without charge for two years at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay but was released after significant lobbying from UK Home Secretary David Blunkett and left-wing human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti. They claimed he was an innocent man who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
In 2010, compensation payments totalling £20million were split between al-Harith and 15 other Guantanamo detainees.
Al-Harith’s brother, Brian Jameson, told The Sun: “Ronald’s a good bloke. He’s kind and caring — nothing like the man who would do this. I know he had become more extremist over the years but I spoke to him a few months back and he seemed just like the brother I knew. I’m devastated.”
An IS statement released on Sunday told of the attack and referred to al-Harith by a new Muslim name, Abu Zakariya al-Britani. It read: “The martyrdom seeking brother Abu Zakariya al-Britani detonated his explosives-laden vehicle on a headquarters of the Rafidhi army and its militias.”
