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Pirates call it sickening to see ‘Jihadi John’ in team hat

FILE - This undated image shows a frame from a video released Friday, Oct. 3, 2014, by Islamic State militants that purports to show the militant who beheaded of taxi driver Alan Henning . A British-accented militant who has appeared in beheading videos released by the Islamic State group in Syria over the past few months bears "striking similarities" to a man who grew up in London, a Muslim lobbying group said Thursday Feb. 26, 2015. Mohammed Emwazi has been identified by news organizations as the masked militant more commonly known as "Jihadi John." London-based CAGE, which works with Muslims in conflict with British intelligence services, said Thursday its research director, Asim Qureshi, saw strong similarities, but because the hood worn by the militant, "there was no way he could be 100 percent certain." (AP Photo) FILE - This undated image shows a frame from a video released Friday, Oct. 3, 2014, by Islamic State militants that purports to show the militant who beheaded of taxi driver Alan Henning . A British-accented militant who has appeared in beheading videos released by the Islamic State group in Syria over the past few months bears "striking similarities" to a man who grew up in London, a Muslim lobbying group said Thursday Feb. 26, 2015. Mohammed Emwazi has been identified by news organizations as the masked militant more commonly known as "Jihadi John." London-based CAGE, which works with Muslims in conflict with British intelligence services, said Thursday its research director, Asim Qureshi, saw strong similarities, but because the hood worn by the militant, "there was no way he could be 100 percent certain." (AP Photo)

By Associated Press February 27, 2015 1 min read

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) – The Pittsburgh Pirates say it’s “absolutely sickening” to see a photo of the Islamic State militant known as “Jihadi John” wearing a Pirates hat.

Sky News published a photo Friday of Mohammed Emwazi, who officials say is the masked frontman for IS hostage beheading videos. The photo (http://bit.ly/1G0K0V9 ), taken from University of Westminster student records, shows Emwazi wearing a hat with the Pirates’ distinctive “P” logo. The AP has been unable to verify the photo.

The Pirates said in a statement that it was sickening to everyone in the organization “to see this murderer wearing a Pirates cap in this old photo.” The team says the gold “P” stands for Pittsburgh and is worn by players, coaches and fans with pride.

Emwazi was born in Kuwait, raised and educated in Britain and is a computer science graduate.