Mohammed Emwazi, the British Isis militant better known as Jihadi John, looks likely to have been killed in an airstrike by the U.S. air force. Although there has been no official confirmation, No.10 sources have told The Guardian there is a ‘high degree of certainty’ that Emwazi was killed in the strikes. The Pentagon has released the following statement:
Downing Street has also released a statement this morning on the strikes:‘U.S. forces conducted an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, on Nov. 12, 2015 targeting Mohamed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John.” Emwazi, a British citizen, participated in the videos showing the murders of U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, and a number of other hostages. We are assessing the results of tonight’s operation and will provide additional information as and where appropriate.’
If these reports are correct and Emwazi has been killed, it will be a symbolic moment in the fight against Isis. But although it might feel like progress to have wiped out the man featuring in the Isis hostage videos, the organisation is still making good on its threats, as John R. Bradley writes in this week’s Spectator, and the downing of the Russian plane shows it still has the potential to cause havoc on a global scale. These air strikes were also notably carried out by the U.S. air force — not least because the RAF does not have permission from Parliament to bomb Syria. David Cameron once said he would ‘do everything we can’ to find Jihadi John:‘The Prime Minister will make a statement later today. We have been working hand in glove with the Americans to defeat ISIL and to hunt down those murdering hostages. The Prime Minister has said before that tracking down these brutal murderers was a top priority.’
But it appears to have been the Americans, not us, who have put him ‘out of action’. No.10 may say Britain is working ‘hand in glove with the Americans’ but it’s another example of our military being unable to take the lead.‘When there are people anywhere in the world who commit appalling and heinous crimes against British citizens we will do everything we can with the police with the security services with all that we have at our disposal to find these people and put them out of action’
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