Cardiff jihadist Reyaad Khan dies in Syria

A Cardiff man who is one of three from the city to have joined a jihadist group in Syria has died, BBC Wales has been told.

Reyaad Khan, 21, was killed in a US drone strike at the end of August.

Officials from the Jalalia mosque in Riverside said the death was confirmed by his family at Friday prayers.

Last year, he appeared in a video along with another man from Cardiff and an Aberdeen man urging others to join so-called Islamic State.

The secretary of the Jalalia mosque, Mokaddus Miah, said prayers were said for him after being told by Reyaad Khan's father that he had died.

In July, there was widespread media speculation that Reyaad Khan had been killed in an earlier missile attack in Syria but the BBC was unable to confirm those reports at the time.

It is thought the former Cantonian High School and St David's College student, who was born in Penarth, travelled to Syria late in 2013.

He appeared in a 13-minute IS propaganda video in June 2014 alongside his friend Nasser Muthana, also from Cardiff, and Abdul Raqib Amin from Aberdeen.

His family in Cardiff later spoke of their shock and said he had been "brainwashed".

'Future in youth'

Five years ago, he appeared in a video featuring teenagers involved in a youth project in Cardiff's Riverside.

In the video, obtained by the Guardian newspaper, he was asked if the world was a "lovely place" or an "evil place".

He replied: "The world can be a lovely place but you've got to get rid of the evil.

"If everyone could choose the good, the evil will go away.

"The future of Britain is in the youth. If you want a better future you should invest in that.

"Money is wasted on terrible things like illegal wars."