Former UK rapper 23-year-old Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary has been named by MI5 as a prime suspect in the beheading of James Foley.

Bary, who until a year ago lived with his family in their £1m home in the affluent London area of Maida Vale, has recently appeared on social media grasping a severed head, an anonymous government source told The Sunday Times.

The Mail on Sunday said it had been given a detailed account of how elite troops from the SAS and the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR) are conducting high-tech operations inside Syria and Iraq, which could lead to the capture of the extremists within days.

It emerged as other reports suggested that British intelligence services had identified the true identity of the terrorist who beheaded Mr Foley—as seen in a video which shocked the world—known as 'Jihadi John'.

British Special Forces hunting the killer of James Foley are using an array of sophisticated equipment to track him down—and possibly free other hostages being held, the Mail on Sunday has reported.