The United States targeted the British-accented Da’esh (ISIS) terrorist known as “Jihadi John” in a drone strike on the group’s headquarters in Raqqa on Thursday (Nov. 12).
U.S. officials could not confirm whether the terrorist actually died in the strike. Multiple news outlets reported, however, that he was “almost certainly killed,” according to The Washington Times.
“U.S. forces conducted an air strike in Raqqa, Syria, on Nov. 12, 2015 targeting Mohamed Emwazi, also known as ‘Jihadi John,” Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook told reporters at a briefing.
A subsequent news report broadcast on ABC News said “Emwazi was ‘eviscerated’ as he left a building in Raqqa, Syria, and entered a vehicle. The official called it a ‘clean hit’ with no collateral damage.”
The U.S. drone involved in the attack “had been tracking Emwazi for some time, watched him all day,” according to a senior American official quoted by Fox News.
Emwazi has been shown in several key ISIS videos behind a black mask, depicting the beheadings of Western hostages, including the murders of journalists Steven Sotloff (a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen) and James Foley, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig, and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, among others.
The terrorist was a former resident of London who emigrated to the UK from Kuwait at age six. He was two classes short of reaching his degree in business management at the University of Westminster.