WASHINGTON // The US military said on Friday it had “great confidence” that a British ISIL militant known as “Jihadi John” had been killed in an American drone strike on Syria.
The 27-year-old Briton, who was born Mohammed Emwazi in Kuwait, sparked worldwide revulsion with his apparent involvement in the grisly executions of foreign aid workers and journalists in Syria on camera.
Colonel Steve Warren said it would take time for final formal confirmation that the high-value target killed in the Hellfire missile drone strike on Thursday was indeed Emwazi.
But he stressed the United States had “great confidence that this individual was Jihadi John”.
“We know for a fact that the weapons system hit its intended target, and that the personnel who were on the receiving end of that weapons system were in fact killed,” he said.
“This guy was a human animal, and killing him probably makes the world a little bit better place.”
He added, however, that although Emwazi was “an ISIL celebrity”, he was not a crucial figure in the group’s hierarchy.
“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.
“Emwazi, a British citizen, participated in the videos showing the murders of US journalists Steven Sotloff 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,” the Pentagon said.
He was last seen in the video showing Goto’s execution in January.
News of Emwazi’s death appeared to be of little comfort to the relatives of those executed on Friday.
“It is a very small solace to learn that Jihadi John may have been killed by the US government,” said John and Diane Foley, the parents of James Foley.
“His death does not bring Jim back,” said the couple, whose son was captured in Syria in 2012 and beheaded in August 2014.
“If only so much effort had been given to finding and rescuing Jim and the other hostages who were subsequently murdered by ISIS, they might be alive today.”
Meanwhile, the widow of David Haines said the possible death of “Jihadi John” in a drone strike would have been “too easy for him”.
Dragana Haines said it would have been much better for the families of the victims if Emwazi had faced a trial.
“I personally would have liked to be able to come to the trial, look him in the face and see what kind of man is that,” she said.
* Agence France-Presse, Associated Press
