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British member of Qaeda affiliate in Syria unmasked as former rocker

A British man fighting with the Nusra Front in Syria has been identified as the son of a film director who worked on Indiana Jones with Steven Spielberg
Lucas Kinney is pictured on the right performing with the band Hannah's Got Herpes (Twitter)
Par MEE staff

The son of a British film director was unmasked on Monday as having gone to fight in Syria’s civil war with al-Qaeda affiliate the Nusra Front.

Lucas Kinney, 26, has appeared in online videos for Nusra and encouraged people to join the group in its battle to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

His father is 59-year-old Patrick Kinney, who worked with Steven Spielberg on films that include Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, according to the Daily Mail.

The younger Kinney was once in a band called Hannah’s Got Herpes before converting to Islam from Catholicism and joining Nusra.

Kinney is known in Nusra as Abu Basir al-Britani.

His mother Deborah Phipps told the Mail that she did not know how her son, who she stays in touch with via email, had ended up fighting with a group affiliated to al-Qaeda.

Phipps, who is divorced from Kinney’s father, said she was concerned he could be killed – either in the war or by a UK drone strike.

“Lucas is a target. I'm glad he's associated with al-Qaeda rather than IS, but obviously I worry,” she told the Mail.

It was revealed in September that the UK had launched strikes in Syria killing two British citizens who were members of IS – the government had said they were a threat to British security.

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