'Chillin' with my homie or what's left of him': British rapper turned ISIS jihadist poses with severed head as they seize more key towns close to Syrian border with Turkey

Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 23, was pictured holding severed head in Raqqa



He uploaded image to Twitter along with shockingly nonchalant caption

Photograph was uploaded just days after the seven-year-old son of an Australian jihadist posed with a severed head in exactly the same location



News comes as ISIS clashed with other rebel groups in northern Syria



Took control of Akhtarin and Turkmanbareh - two towns near Turkish border

A British rapper who travelled to Syria to fight for ISIS has posted a photograph on Twitter showing himself posing with a severed head.



The sickening image was taken in the city of Raqqa - the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate - and uploaded to the social media site along with the caption 'Chillin' with my homie or what's left of him.'

The photograph shows masked former rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 23, holding the decapitated head while standing in Raqqa's central square - the same location where the seven-year-old son of Australian jihadist Khaled Sharrouf was seen holding a different severed head earlier this week.

The shocking image of Bary emerged as ISIS militants seized a number of key towns and villages close to Syria's northern border with Turkey.

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Horrific: The photograph shows masked former rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 23, holding the decapitated head while standing in Raqqa's central square

Former rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, 23, is understood to have walked out of his family's £1million home in Maida Vale, west London, last year to join ISIS, telling them he was 'leaving everything for the sake of Allah'

Past: Friends said Bary - an aspiring rapper on the 'grime' music scene - grew increasingly radical and violent after mixing with thugs linked to hate preacher Anjem Choudary

Video courtesy of SBTV



As well as posing for an image himself, Bary - whose Twitter account has since been deleted - uploaded other shocking photographs of severed heads displayed on railings in the square.



Alongside one image, he posted the words: 'It's beautiful when you see Allah's laws implemented.

The disturbing photographs come just days after convicted Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf uploaded an image of his seven-year-old son standing in the same spot holding a decapitated head.

That image - which was captioned ' That's my boy' - received worldwide condemnation from political leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Bary, meanwhile, is a former rapper who once had his music played on Radio One.

He is understood to have walked out of his family's £1million home in Maida Vale, west London, last year to join ISIS, telling them he was 'leaving everything for the sake of Allah'.

Disturbing: The disturbing photographs come just days after convicted Australian terrorist Khaled Sharrouf uploaded a image of his seven-year-old son standing in the same spot holding a decapitated head

Sharrouf (right) posted photos of himself and a boy he claimed was his son holding a decapitated head

Friends said Bary - an aspiring rapper on the 'grime' music scene - grew increasingly radical and violent after mixing with thugs linked to hate preacher Anjem Choudary.

He has posted a series of photographs online, including shots of him masked and posing with guns under the title 'soldier of Allah'.

In other messages he called on Allah to 'grant us martyrdom', and praised Osama Bin Laden. Bary, whose music has featured on Radio 1, is one of six children of Adel Abdul Bary, 53.

Bary Snr was extradited from Britain to the US in 2011 after an eight-year legal battle that made him a cause celebre of the Left as lawyers took his publicly funded case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Investigators believe Bary Snr was one of Bin Laden's closest lieutenants in the infancy of Al Qaeda and ran a London cell of the terror network.

He faces life in prison if convicted of involvement in the bombings of US embassies in East Africa in 1998.

His son's appearance among the ranks of UK jihadists in Syria, where several Britons fighting for the militants have already been killed, will add to concerns about their potential threat to the West.



Men walk on rubble at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad at Qadi Askar district of Aleppo today

The image emerged as ISIS militants seized a number of key towns and villages close to the Syrian border with Turkey.

Deadly clashes between rebel groups saw ISIS forces take control of Akhtarin and Turkmanbareh in the Aleppo countryside earlier this morning, according to Syrian opposition activists.

The ISIS militants also took control of three nearby areas - dislodging rebels troops who had held the stretch of north west Syria, having earlier seized it from President Bashar Assad's forces.

The towns are the latest prize for the ISIS militants, who have carved out a self-styled caliphate across vast swaths of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq.

The towns' takeover was reported by several activists, jihadists affiliated with ISIS on social media, and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The news comes as Egypt's top cleric branded ISIS a 'terrorist' group that poses a danger to all Muslims and to the Islamic religion itself.

Grand Mufti Shawki Allam, Egypt's highest religious authority, said the extremist group is 'violating all the Islamic principles and the intentions of the Shariah [Islamic law].'

A man stands amid damage as flames erupt at a site hit by what activists said was a barrel bomb dropped by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad at Qadi Askar district of Aleppo this morning

In remarks carried by Egypt's state news agency late last night, Allam also said the 'bloody extremist group' had tarnished the image of Islam and paved the way for the destruction of Muslim nations.

Earlier today a former senior Iraqi politician has warned that the country risks becoming another Syria unless a way to preserve its unity is found in the face of the ISIS threat.



Hajem Hassani, previously speaker in the Iraqi parliament, said if the society did not come together, it would leave the door wide open to the militant group.



He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'This is probably one of the hardest times Iraq is facing.'

'If we don't come together, then probably we will open the door too wide for the IS or other terrorist organisations.'

'We need to take the control...[or] it definitely will take us to the Syrian path if we are not very careful and finding ways to solve the problems.'

Asked whether newly-appointed Iraqi prime minister Haider Abadi understood the need for an inclusive government, he replied: 'He should do.'