A US official said that there was a lot of sensitivity as far as what the reaction would be in the Muslim communities within the United Kingdom, especially if a formal announcement of the drone strike was made.
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The claims have not been confirmed by British authorities.
Hussain is believed to have fled for Syria the following year.
The US military conducted this operation because there were clear rules of engagement when it comes to attacking ISIS, and there was not any implications that the British government had been involved in helping kill Hussain, since he is a British-born citizen.
He was a member of TeaMpOisoN (TeamPoison), a group which claimed to be behind online hacking attacks involving foreign politicians, major worldwide businesses, an global humanitarian agency and foreign law enforcement.
They said: “The air forces targeted a auto near the gas station, which killed three people, one of them is high profile”.
America has been stepping up drone strikes against top ISIS targets in recent months with the group’s second in command, Haji Mutazz, being killed in a similar strike last week.
The two countries had worked closely on tracking the British national, and both gathered evidence for criminal cases in the event they should apprehend him.
It is unclear if the drone strike that killed Mr. Hussain was flown out of Turkey or another location.
Several U.S. officials told CNN that the drone strike was specifically targeting Hussain traveling in a vehicle in Syria after the U.S. got intelligence on where he was and watched him to confirm his presence before striking. Hussain, 21, was believed to have been assigned with recruiting new Islamists for the Iraqi militant group through cyberspace.
Mr. Hussain, however, was less well-known for his accomplishments within those areas and more worrisome to U.S. and British officials for his attempts to provoke deadly attacks outside them.
“This is a great intelligence success”, one U.S. official told CNN. Mr. Hussain was believed to have been involved in helping to inspire some of those planned attacks, which the FBI said it had thwarted.
That same year, Team Poison tied up the phone lines of an MI6 anti-terror hotline.
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He was on police bail for an alleged violent disorder offence when he fled the UK and joined ISIS.
