Raphael Hostey

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}} {{Short description|British ISIL recruiter and fighter from Manchester}} thumb|Raphael Hostey '''Raphael Hostey''' (1992 – May 2016), also known as '''Abu Qaqa al-Britani''',<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Raphael Hostey {{!}} Counter Extremism Project |url=https://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/raphael-hostey |access-date=29 December 2025 |website=The Counter Extremism Project}}</ref> was a British Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant recruiter and fighter from Manchester.

Hostey was a rapper and graphic design student at Liverpool John Moores University when he left his wife and child to join ISIS in 2013.<ref>{{cite web|last=Fitzgerald |first=Todd |url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/baby-faced-rapper-who-fled-7879540 |title=Baby-faced rapper who fled Britain to join ISIS is 'killed in Syria' - Mirror Online |website=Mirror.co.uk |date=2016-04-29 |access-date=2016-05-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Samuel Osborne |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-jihadi-british-uk-recruiter-terrorism-manchester-killed-in-syria-raphael-hostey-abu-qaqa-al-a7009721.html |title=Isis jihadi who recruited 'hundreds' of UK fighters 'killed in Syria' |newspaper=The Independent |date=2016-05-01 |access-date=2016-05-05}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32091701 |title=British jihadists: The friends who want to be martyrs |date=29 March 2015 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=2016-05-05}}</ref> He was part of a group of like-minded extremists in the Manchester area, including Salman Abedi<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Hughes |first=Andy |date=25 May 2017 |title=Manchester suicide bomber Salman Abedi linked to key UK IS recruiter |url=https://news.sky.com/story/manchester-suicide-bomber-salman-abedi-linked-to-key-uk-is-recruiter-10891692 |access-date=29 December 2025 |work=Sky News}}</ref> and Ahmed Halane,<ref>{{Cite news |date=14 January 2016 |title=Manchester terror accused 'made hub for extremists' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-35314712 |access-date=29 December 2025 |work=BBC News}}</ref> and he traveled to Syria with other recruits.<ref name=":1" /> He later wrote Ifthekar Jaman, an ISIL member from Portsmouth, was their guide and that his Manchester group joined up with a group of Portsmouth recruits whom Jaman knew.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Perry |first=Alex |date=13 March 2016 |title=On the Trail of Britain's Homegrown Jihadis |url=https://www.newsweek.com/2015/01/23/jihadis-299505.html |access-date=29 December 2025 |work=Newsweek}}</ref>

During his time in Syria Hostey used social media, including Twitter, Tumblr and Ask.fm, to promote ISIS and recruit for it. He was reportedly part of a five-man team of recruiters<ref name=":0" /> which included Neil Prakash, and linked to Prakash's social media accounts.<ref name=":0" /> Hostey promised there would be "beautiful wives" for ISIL fighters.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Parveen |first=Nazia |date=25 February 2017 |title=Small part of Manchester that has been home to 16 jihadis |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/feb/25/small-part-of-manchester-that-has-been-home-to-16-jihadis |access-date=28 December 2025 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> He is alleged to have recruited hundreds of people to ISIL, including Jamal Al-Harith<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> who was reportedly a close friend of Hostey's father.<ref name=":3" />

In February 2014, Hostey was shot in the foot in the fighting.<ref name=":12">{{Cite news |date=11 February 2016 |title=Manchester student guilty of terror offences |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-35549985 |access-date=29 December 2025 |work=BBC News}}</ref> He is believed to have been killed in an airstrike in Syria in the last week of April 2016, at the age of 24.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{cite web|author=Josie Ensor |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/02/british-jihadi-reported-to-have-been-killed-in-syria/ |title=British jihadi recruiter reported dead in Syria drone strike |website=Telegraph.co.uk |date=2016-05-01 |access-date=2016-05-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/isis-fighter-moss-side-dead-11272553 |title=ISIS fighter from Moss Side believed to have been killed in Syria |publisher=Manchester Evening News |access-date=2016-05-05}}</ref>

==See also== *Aine Davis *Abu Qaqa

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[http://www.counterextremism.com/extremists/raphael-hostey-aka-abu-qaqa-al-britani Raphael Hostey profile at counterextremism.com]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hostey, Raphael}} Category:1992 births Category:2016 deaths Category:British Muslims Category:British rappers Category:Islamic State members from United Kingdom Category:Islamic State propagandists Category:Deaths by airstrike during the Syrian civil war Category:People from Manchester