US drone strike targets ‘Jihadi John’ in Syria
Print Edition
A US drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting the masked IS militant known as “Jihadi John,” according to American officials. Whether the strike killed the British national who appears in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages was not known, British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday.
Mohammed Emwazi was the target of an airstrike in Raqqa, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. Officials were assessing the results of the strike, he said.
A US official said that a drone had targeted a vehicle in which Emwazi was believed to be traveling.
The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.
Cameron said officials are not yet certain whether a US drone strike killed Emwazi. He said the strike had been a joint effort and that British intelligence agencies were working around the clock to find the British-accented militant, whom Cameron called the militant group’s “lead executioner.”
Cameron said the US strike had been “an act of self-defense” and the right thing to do. He said targeting Emwazi was “a strike at the heart” of IS.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, appearing at a news conference in Tunis, Tunisia yesterday said that the US was still assessing the strike. He told reporters extremists “need to know this: your days are numbered and you will be defeated.”
Emwazi, believed to be in his mid-20s, has been described by a former hostage as a bloodthirsty psychopath who enjoyed threatening Western hostages. Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa, who had been held in Syria for more than six months, said Emwazi would explain precisely how the militants would carry out a beheading.
Those being held by three British-sounding captors nicknamed them “the Beatles” with “Jihadi John” a reference to John Lennon, Espinosa said in recalling his months as one of more than 20 hostages.
Cameron said Britain has been “working, with the United States, literally around the clock to track him down.”
“This was a combined effort,” he said. “And the contribution of both our countries was essential.”
Cameron said that “it will demonstrate to those who would do Britain, our people and our allies harm: We have a long reach, we have unwavering determination and we never forget about our citizens.”
Among those beheaded by ISIS militants in videos were US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
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