UK spies face questions about 'Jihadi John'

London - British spy agencies are facing questions about how a young Londoner who was on their radar as part of terrorist investigations was able to travel to Syria and become the knife-wielding masked militant known as "Jihadi John."

Officials have identified the man shown in hostage-beheading videos as Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwait-born computer science graduate raised and educated in Britain.

Emwazi, now in his mid-20s, was known to the British intelligence services since 2009 in connection with investigations into terrorism in Somalia and elsewhere.