The USA military said Friday it was “reasonably certain” that it killed the ruthless Islamic State extremist known as “Jihadi John” in a drone strike in Syria.
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“We can not yet be certain if the strike was successful”, British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday in a statement delivered outside his Downing Street office, adding that the operation was “an act of self-defence” that showed the “long reach” of Britain and the U.S. in their fight against IS. Describing this as a routine strike, Warren said since March, the US-led worldwide collation has killed on an average one ISIL leader every two day.
While this news is reaching throughout the world, it is especially important in Milwaukee – where one of Jihadi John’s victims, James Foley, used to live as a Marquette student.
Other reports speculated that the slain British militant was the notorious “Jihadi John”, the executioner who appeared in several video footages beheading captives of the IS.
Mohammed Emwazi was believed to have been in a vehicle near Raqqa when he was targeted by a U.S. drone.
“I have always said that we would do whatever was necessary, whatever it took, to track down Emwazi and stop him taking the lives of others”, he said. In the British media they were nicknamed John, Paul and Ringo, after members of the Beatles, due to their English accents.
Emwazi is thought to have participated in the beheadings of Steven Sotloff, another American journalist; Abdul-Rahman Kassig, an American aid worker; David Haines and Alan Henning, both British aid workers; and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
“There is certainly a significant blow to their prestige of ISIL, but Jihadi John wasn’t a major tactical figure or operational figure”, Col Warren said.
Foley said she felt no sense of justice, and her son would have disagreed with the strike as well.
Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking from Tunisia, said, “The terrorists associated with Daesh need to know this: Your days are numbered, and you will be defeated”.
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Warren said the strike was carried out using a Hellfire missile fired from a drone over Raqqa, the Syrian city that serves as the self-proclaimed capital of the ISIS caliphate.
