[IsraelTimes] Pentagon targets British jihadist Mohammed Emwazi in Syria drone strikeUS drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting the masked Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
jihadist known as "Jihadi John" on Thursday, according to American officials. Whether the strike killed the British man, who appeared in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages, was not known, officials said.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the strike Thursday in Syria's Raqqa targeted Mohammed Emwazi. Cook said whether or not Emwazi died in the strike wasn't immediately clear.
"We are assessing the results of tonight's operation and will provide additional information as and where appropriate," he said in a statement.
American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Washington Post said the
However,
a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package...
an unnamed senior US official told Fox News, "We are 99 percent sure we got him."
Emwazi is in the videos showing the killings of journalists Steven Sotloff -- who held Israeli citizenship -- and James Foley, US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, and a number of other hostages.
Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff, told NBC News following word of Thursday's strike that she hadn't been informed about it and that, even if Emwazi had been killed, "it doesn't bring my son back."
"Who knows if he's gone," NBC News quoted her as saying. "I don't think there will ever be closure."
The former London resident emigrated to the UK from his native Kuwait when he was 6, and first gained infamy after he beheaded Foley in August 2014.
The Islamic State later produced a series of videos featuring Emwazi beheading Sotloff and a number of other Westerners, while threatening world leaders from behind a black mask -- in perfect English and with an unmistakable London accent.
Emwazi was identified as "Jihadi John" last February, although a lawyer who once represented Emwazi's father told news hounds that there was no evidence supporting the accusation. Experts and others later confirmed the identification.
Officials said Britannia's intelligence community had Emwazi on its list of potential terror suspects for years but was unable to prevent him from traveling to Syria. He had been known to the nation's intelligence services since at least 2009, when he was connected with investigations into terrorism in Somalia.
While Emwazi has been a high-value target for Western security agencies, he has successfully evaded coalition
Prior to joining the krazed killer group, Emwazi was considered a model student at the University of Westminster, where he studied information systems and business management from 2006 to 2009. Records indicate that he was two modules short of obtaining his degree.