Kidnapped British aid worker held on a £3million ransom is rescued by al-Qaeda jihadists after two months in captivity in Syria
- Mohammed Shakiel Shabir, from Birmingham, kidnapped in Idlib, Syria
- British aid worker held on a £3million ransom since November last year
- Video shows him rescued by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, known as al-Qaeda in Syria
This is the dramatic moment a British aid worker was rescued by al-Qaeda-linked jihadists after being kidnapped and held for ransom in Syria for two months.
Mohammed Shakiel Shabir, from Birmingham, was reportedly taken by an armed group in Idlib, northwestern Syria, in November, after which they demanded £3million in exchange for his release.
Video footage released by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group also known as al-Qaeda in Syria, shows him in chains on the floor of a dark cell.
Taken: Mohammed Shakiel Shabir, from Birmingham, was reportedly kidnapped by an armed group in Idlib, Syria, in November
‘Shakiel! Do you recognise me?’ one of the fighters asks the aid worker according to Middle East Eye.
‘I do my brother,’ Shakiel Shabir replies and embraces his rescuer.
The website reported that Shakiel Shabir had been kidnapped at a checkpoint at the end of November and held captive ever since.
Moazzam Begg, outreach director of CAGE, an organisation which aims ‘to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror’, told MEE he had been in touch with Shakiel Shabir’s family who confirmed the rescue mission by HTS.
Begg, who was famously held in Guantanamo Bay for three years without charge, said the kidnappers had demanded $4million (£3million).
Freed: Dramatic video footage shows the moment Shakiel Shabir is rescued in Syria
‘Do you recognise me?’ The British aid worker embraces one of his rescuers after spending more than two months in captivity
The group had allegedly demanded £3million in exchange for releasing the Birmingham man
Shakiel Shabir has been living and working in the Middle East for several years, initially on the Turkish side of the Syrian border, but more recently inside the war-ravaged country.
A 2014 interview with the Times details how he had led a troubled life growing up in central Birmingham, including several stints in prison.
After travelling to Gaza to deliver aid in 2009 he ‘rediscovered Islam’ and began working with a Turkish charity.
The UK Foreign Office advise against all travel to Syria and urge all British nationals in the country to leave by any practical means.
The UK suspended all services of the British Embassy in Damascus in 2012, and is not able to provide consular services to any citizens in the country.
MailOnline has contacted the Foreign Office for comment.