U.S. ‘reasonably certain’ that British Islamic State militant Jihadi John killed

The USA military today said it was “reasonably certain” that ISIS militant “Jihadi John” was killed in its air strike in Syria, describing his death as a “significant” blow to the the Islamic State terror group.

“A vehicle carrying four foreign Islamic State leaders, including one British Jihadi was hit by U.S. air strikes right after the governorate building in Raqqa city”, Rami Abdulrahman, Director of the UK-based Observatory told Reuters. The official is not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

In addition to Foley, Emwazi is believed to have appeared in videos about the killings of Britons David Haines and Alan Henning, Americans Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig (who changed his first name to Abdul-Rahman during his captivity), and two Japanese hostages, Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa.

John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, said the results of the strike were still being assessed but told reporters extremists “need to know this: your days are numbered and you will be defeated”. “The intelligence indicators that we had gave us great confidence that this individual was Jihadi John”. It’s also hard not to feel the pain of Foley’s parents, John and Diane Foley, who issued a statement saying Emwazi’s death was “a very small solace” and that they would have preferred that as much effort had been put into rescuing their son as was put into eventually finding his killer.

Mr Cameron said it had not yet been confirmed that Mohammed Emwazi – who he branded a “barbaric murderer” – was dead.

The journalist, Javier Espinosa, who had been held in Syria for more than six months after his abduction in September 2013, said those being held by three British-sounding captors nicknamed them “the Beatles”, with Jihadi John a reference to Beatles member John Lennon.

“I would worry more about people being inspired by it than directed”, Pantucci told the Telegraph.

She added that she would have preferred Emwazi to have been brought back to the United Kingdom to face justice.

Militant sympathizers uploaded the carnage to websites and shared them via mobile phone apps in a way impossible only 10 years earlier.

The British citizen, clad and black and masked, appeared in a string of graphic videos showing the beheading of Western hostages.

Emwazi, a London computer programmer, was born in Kuwait to a stateless family of Iraqi origin.