U.S. airstrike against “Jihadi John” was “act of self-defense”: British PM

US forces targeted “Jihadi John”, the man who has emerged as the masked face of ISIS, in an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, the Pentagon announced Thursday night.

An American airstrike has targeted and likely killed a top Islamic State leader in Libya, in a strike that happened just as the Paris terrorist attacks were underway, the Pentagon said Saturday.

USA military spokesman Steve Warren says officials are “reasonably certain” they have killed the Islamic State militant known as Jihadi John with a Hellfire missile fired from a drone.

British Prime Minister David Cameron praised the attack on Emwazi, a British national, as an “act of self-defense” that would “strike at the heart of ISIS”.

But Raffaello Pantucci of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London said Emwazi’s death would make little strategic difference and could create a “martyr culture” around him.

Diane and John Foley of New Hampshire, the parents of James Foley, say in a statement released Friday that the US should spend as much effort finding and rescuing hostages as it does hunting down extremists.

He first appeared in a video in August a year ago, when footage was posted online showing the murder of U.S. journalist James Foley.

Colonel Warren confirmed a video existed of the kill saying all drone strikes are taped.

Hailing from an affluent family in West London, Emwazi, a computer-programming graduate, reportedly travelled to Syria around 2012 to joined the IS during the group’s infancy.

He was last seen in the video showing Goto’s execution in January.

The air strike came as scant consolation to Louise Woodward-Styles, a friend of the British aid worker Alan Henning, one of Emwazi’s victims.

“Islamic State will survive “Jihadi John”,” said Jonathan Russell, political liaison officer at the Quilliam Foundation, which aims to debunk the belief systems of Islamic extremism.

“We are all aware of the ghastly videos, the absolute barbarism that he displayed”.

Noting Emwazi’s public status, Warren said the British citizen “wasn’t a major tactical figure, or an operational figure”. It emerged that Emwazi had been known to British intelligence services but managed to travel to Syria in 2013.