In announcing the Thursday strike, the Pentagon would not say that Emwazi had been killed, but officials said, those in charge are confident the militant was killed. He said Emwazi was the only high-value target who died in the strike.
Advertisement
“There is certainly a significant blow to the prestige of ISIL, but Jihadi John wasn’t a major tactical figure or operational figure”, Warren said.
“There are a few entrenched IS fighters, but we are absolutely confident that over the next days Sinjar will be able to be liberated”, Kerry said during a visit to Tunis.
“I have heard the news but it doesn’t bring me any comfort because nothing will bring back my husband”, said Dragana Prodanovic Haines, the Croatian wife of aid worker David Haines who was kidnapped by IS and killed previous year.
“He knew people were trying to kill him”, Mr Todenhöfer said.
An unnammed US official was quoted earlier as saying the air strike was “flawless” and the infamous British militant was “evaporated”. “The intelligence indicators that we had gave us great confidence that this individual was Jihadi John”.
Turkish officials said that Davis has always been regarded one of Emwazi closest collaborators, adding that they were “99 percent certain” that the person in custody was indeed Davis.
Emwazi then appeared in videos showing the deaths of American journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines and United Kingdom taxi driver Alan Henning, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
Going after Emwazi was “an act of self-defense” and “the right thing to do”, Cameron said.
But while the statement in the video of Berg’s killing was in Arabic, Emwazi spoke English in his videos, making the message even easier for the world to understand.
Advertisement
Army Col. Steve Warren, USA military spokesman in Baghdad, told reporters Friday officials had been following Mohammed Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British citizen, for a few time. “If only so much effort had been given to finding and rescuing Jim and the other hostages… they might be alive today”.
