US ‘reasonably certain’ it has killed ‘Jihadi John’ – live updates

09:13
US ‘reasonably certain’ it has killed ‘Jihadi John’ – live updates



Powered by Guardian.co.ukThis article titled "US 'reasonably certain' it has killed 'Jihadi John' – live updates" was written by Alan Yuhas, Damien Gayle and Matthew Weaver, for theguardian.com on Friday 13th November 2015 17.05 UTC


Pentagon briefing summary

  • Colonel Steve Warren said the Pentagon is “reasonably certain” that the US killed Mohammed Emwazi, a British member of Isis called “jihadi John”, in a drone strike in Raqqa, Syria.
  • Warren said there is video of the man believed to be Emwazi in the car that was struck by a drone’s Hellfire missile. “We know for a fact that the weapons system hit the intended target and that the personnel on the receiving end were killed by that.”
  • The Pentagon conceded that Emwazi “wasn’t a major tactical figure” in the extremist group, but more of a “recruitment tool” and “celebrity” for Isis. “This guy was a human animal,” Warren said, and his death will be “ a significant blow to their prestige”.
  • Warren said that intelligence sources “gave us great confidence” that the man in Raqqa was Emwazi: “we have been following this target for some time.”
  • The operation spokesman demurred about whether the drone strike was conducted with any cooperation with the UK, saying: “it’s important for me to let our British partners speak for themselves.”



Warren closes out the briefing, and the AFP’s WG Dunlop tweets a Defense Department map charting how Kurdish forces retook the town of Sinjar.




Someone asks about the PKK involvement in the assault on Sinjar.

“This operation was a Pesh-led operation,” he says, with some small forces, including Yazidi soldiers, participating. But Warren has nothing to say about the PKK, which has been deemed a terrorist organization by the US.

Someone else asks about his characterization of someone with Emwazi as a “best friend”.

“Worst best friend” is a “colloquialism we like to use here,” Warren says, adding that the man may have been a driver or assistant. “We like to refer to it as a worst best friend.”

Updated




A reporter asks about how the US helps Kurdish forces choose targets.

Warren says that the Kurds never spoke directly to American pilots, but rather both sides coordinate from a base in Erbil.

“The Kurds on top of the mountain will pick up their hand mic, and they’ll call back to the Kurds at the operational center, and say, ‘we see what we think is a legitimate target.’”

The basebound will coordinate “face-to-face” with the Americans there, “and then we’ll vector in aircraft onto the target and destroy it,” Warren says. He adds that the American team also coordinates with the Iraqis and Kurds to avoid friendly fire.



There were no other high-value individuals in the car with the man believed to be Emwazi, Warren repeats.

“He had a worst best friend who was with him, who is also now dead,” he says.

He’s asked about Kurdish casualties, and says: “Pesh casualties compared to Isil casualties are miniscule. It’s several kilometers on either side of Sinjar that they now control.”

Updated




A reporter asks whether there were other high-value targets in the strike on Emwazi.

Warren says no, “he was the only high value individual that we were trying to kill in that particular operation.”

He’s asked about the “military adviser” role of US troops in Syria and Iraq. “How are we going to do logistics, how are we going to do triage and intelligence collection.”

He adds that they also help Kurdish peshmerga manage casualties but weren’t necessarily part of the actual medevac operations.



Question: “Is there reason to believe there were civilian casualties in the strike on Emwazi?”

Warren: “No, there’s not.”

Question: What’s the plan going forward from the Kurdish victory at Sinjar?

Warren: “Now that they’ve seized Sinjar, or freed Sinjar, now they have to clear it.” That will take weeks, he says, depending on how much Isis mined the town.

He says he’s not going to detail anything about the next steps in the offensive, because he would prefer “to keep [Isis] guessing”.



“There will be a time after the war. The war will end,” Warren says in his answer to a question about how the US is targeting oil operations.

He says the aim is to “strike certain parts of these facilities that will shut them down for an extended period of time.”



Warren pulls up a map of the Sinjar offensive, saying the US helped advise Kurdish commanders on how to retake the city.

“There were a handful of personnel on top of the mountain helping the peshmerga forces identify and develop targets on the ground,” he says.

Asked about whether US forces helped evacuate Kurdish troops who needed medical help, Warren says it was “actually Iraqi security force helicopters and pilots” who helped the Kurds. The Pentagon is “excited” to see the Kurds and Iraqi security forces cooperate, he adds.



Asked about the possibility of a so-called “safe zone” along the Turkish-Syrian border, Warren says the Pentagon does not believe it’s a good idea yet.

The Pentagon map, tweeted by Radio Sawa Washington correspondent Zaid Benjamin.




Warren says there is video of the strike, but doesn’t answer a question about whether that video might be released or how it might increase confidence that Emwazi was killed.

Asked about possible cooperation with the UK, Warren says the British are “great allies” but “it’s important for me to let our British partners speak for themselves.”



Warren is asked how the Pentagon can be sure that Emwazi was killed by the drone strike. Warren says intelligence sources “gave us great confidence that this individual was Jihadi John”.

“We have been following this target for some time,” he says. “And when the opportunity presented itself for minimal civilian casualties, we took the shot.”

The drone strike was a “relatively routine operation”, he adds.

Updated




A reporter asks Warren about US operations compared to Russian air strikes, and whether they overlap at all along Syria’s east and west.

Warren evades the question about Russian military intervention, saying “We’re focusing on the entire breadth of this. Our focus is Isil.”
Everywhere where there’s Isil there is some form of coalition offensive activity. And it’s ground and air activity integrated.
He says there are two exceptions, including an oil field targeted by the recent air campaign.

Warren says that the strategy is to keep Isil forces harried and moving, “in a position where he can’t make good decisions. Every decision he has to make will result in his eventual destruction.”

Updated




Warren says that the strike was important because Emwazi was “something of a Isil celebrity, if you will,” and his death would mean “significant blow to their prestige”.

“But Jihadi John wasn’t a major tactical figure or an operational figure.”

“He was a recruitment tool for that organization,” Warren says. “I mean this guy was a human animal, and I mean killing him is probably making the world a better place.”

Updated



Pentagon: 'reasonably certain' Emwazi killed


The first question to Warren is about the Emwazi strike.

“It’s still a little early but we are reasonably certain we killed the target that we intended to kill, which is Jihadi John. It’ll take some time of course to formally delcare that we have success,” he says.

“We’ve got several methods that we use to try and determine whether or not the strike successfully killed the target that we wanted killed.

“We know for a fact that the weapons system hit the intended target and that the personnel on the receiving end were killed by that.

“It was a drone strike using a Hellfire missile.”

Updated




Warren clarifies a point about the videos: “as you look at those videos you’ll see on each screen several inverted triangles, each of those inverted triangles actually represents an individual target. So one video represents one strike, but what you’ll see is there are several targets in that strike.”



Warren estimates that the US has destroyed 13 Isis vehicles and 93 fighting positions, and killed 287 enemy fighters in recent weeks of air strikes.

“Beginning on October 21 we conducted a massive strike on the Omar oil fields,” Warren says, adding that the Pentagon is “very proud” of the operation to strip Isis of its oil finances. He cues up several videos of air strikes on oil fields – the gray, silent feed shows derricks and building, under crosshairs, which suddenly erupt in balloons of flame and black smoke.



At Mosul, Warren says the US is conducting “disruption operations” and targeting Isis’ oil drills. The attacks are “inflicting significant damage on Isis’ ability to fund itself,” he says.

The US is conducting “disruption operations” in Raqqa, he adds, including the strike that targeted Emwazi. There were seven air strikes in the last 30 days east of the city.

In and around Sinjar there have been 250 air strikes in the last month, he continues, adding that there were 83 near Mosul.



At Ramadi US and Iraqi forces are besieging Isis forces, Warren says. In Fallujah he says “we’re beginning the isolation process”, as in Haditha.

“It’s notable that a lot of these operations are mutually supporting,” he continues, explaining that operations in Sinjar and near Al Hasakah are coordinating.



Warren begins with prepared remarks.

“As events unfold across Syria and Iraq such as the ongoing operations in Ramada … and yesterday’s attack in Sinjar, it’s easy to focus on the events as separate and unconnected.”

Warren say they’re not separate and distinct but connected. He pulls up a map of Syria and Iraq that shows the swath of territory controlled by Isis and five stars indicating ongoing battles, including at Sinjar.



The Pentagon is beginning its press briefing with Colonel Steve Warren speaking from Baghdad. You can watch the briefing live here.

Updated




Emwazi’s killing if confirmed would not represent a tactical blow to Isis, a Brookings Doha Center fellow tells my colleague Ian Black, but it would land a psychological blow.

More from Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and author of a forthcoming book on jihadi groups in Syria:
Killing Emwazi is highly symbolic for sure, but it’s not going to directly change battlefield dynamics by itself. However, if reports surrounding the circumstances of his death are accurate, it would seem to indicate at least one human intelligence asset capable of penetrating some of ISIS’ most senior ranks in the heart of its capital Raqqa.
Although Emwazi’s death won’t incur ISIS territorial losses, it’ll almost certainly heighten a sense of internal security paranoia that has been spreading for several months now. Kill strikes like this are often about more than just the target itself.

By reminding ISIS that it is constantly under surveillance – not just from the air but possibly also by assets on the ground – the coalition is enforcing an intense psychological pressure that can severely test a terrorist groups’ cohesion and unity.



The air strike targeting Emwazi coincided with a major Kurdish and Yazidi offensive to take back the Iraqi town of Sinjar, which Isis forces swept into last year. The offensive had support from US air strikes.

Buzzfeed’s Mike Giglio visited the ruins of Sinjar with the Kurdish and Yazidi coalition, tweeting what he saw and heard.

“Sinjar seemed like ISIS was already defeated by the time the big show of cavalry came this afternoon,” he wrote, adding that soldiers are warning to walk carefully on the streets for fear of IEDs threaded along the roads by wires.

“I just came here to ease some of my pain.” a Yazidi soldier who lost seven siblings told Giglio.





The mother of James Foley, the American journalist murdered by Isis on video, has said that Emwazi’s killing gives her no sense of solace or justice.

“It saddens me that here in America here we’re celebrating the killing of this deranged, pathetic young man,” Diane Foley told ABC News. “Jim would’ve been devastated with the whole thing. Jim was a peacemaker.”
Had circumstances been different Jim probably would’ve befriended [Emwazi] and tried to help him

I mean it’s just so sad that our precious resources have been, you know, concentrated to seek revenge, if you will, or kill this man, when if a bit of them had been utilized to save our young Americans … That’s what our country should be doing, I think, is protecting our citizens and the vulnerable, the people who are suffering, not trying to seek revenge and bomb.
Foley was later asked about whether a strike to kill Emwazi would at least give her a sense of justice.
Justice? No, no. It’s just sad. And I think we have to be careful as an American media not to glorify this deranged young man. He’s a sad individual, filled with hate for us. I mean, no, no. that’s very sad to me. so I hope our country can choose to lead in ways of peace and bringing, valuing young Americans who are trying to protect press freedom and our best ideals.
That’s the part of America I’m proud of. I don’t like this bully part, I’m sorry.

Updated




Here’s video of Kerry’s comments:


John Kerry says US officials are assessing the results of the airstrike that targeted Islamic State militant Mohammed Emwazi. Speaking at a press conference in Tunis on Friday, the secretary of states ays the US carried out the air strike in Syria on Thursday. Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John, participated in horrific videos showing the murder of American and British hostages


Kerry: ‘still assessing results’


US Secretary of State John Kerry says the Pentagon is still assessing whether Emwazi was killed in the attack.

Speaking on a visit to Tunis, Kerry said: “We are still assessing the results of this strike.”

John Kerry speaks during a news conference in Tunis
John Kerry speaks in Tunis Photograph: Zoubeir Souissi/Reuters
He told reporters extremists “need to know this: Your days are numbered, and you will be defeated.”

Kerry said videos released by Isis showed Emwazi “participating in horrific murders”.

Updated




How did a child who arrived in Britain aged six and loved football and S Club 7 go on to become the brutal Isis militant known as Jihadi John? asks this video profile of Mohammed Emwazi.


Video profile of Mohammed Emwazi



A US military briefing that is expected to cover the overnight attacks in Syria has been slightly delayed, according to our Washington correspondent Dan Roberts.

The Colonel Steve Warren’s press conference is now due to start an hour later at 1600GMT.



Was the UK given the chance to launch the drone strike against Emwazi? as Rusi analyst Shashank Joshi asks.

Joshi insists he has no insider information on whether the UK was given that option.

But the UK was at least involved in the planning of the drone strike in what a well-placed Whitehall source described as a “long, protracted operation”, according to the Guardian’s defence and security writer Richard Norton-Taylor.

It involved GCHQ interceptions from both intelligence-gathering aircraft and ground-based listening posts, alomsot certainly in Cyprus, as well as US spy planes, the source said.

But it also involved other parties in the “coalition” against Isis. The source made it clear he was referring to neighbouring countries, including Jordan.

He would not be drawn on whether these countries had “human sources”, ie informants, on the ground, but that was the inference.

There are no British special forces in northern Syria, the source insisted.

Aerial view of Raqqa
Aerial view of Raqqa where activists said a drone targeting Mohammed Emwazi struck



The drone strike on Emwazi is believed to have targeted him in the centre Raqqa, close to the spot where the group have carried out a string of public executions, write Ben Quinn, Alice Ross and Kareem Shaheen

Emwazi, a Briton born in Kuwait, almost certainly died in the attack alongside three people who were with him in a car, according to UK-based Syrian rights activists in touch with people in the city.

“Four young men were in the car, including a British citizen who was a very senior figure,” the Guardian was told by Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “We are 100% certain that he is dead. People have told us that there were a lot of [body] parts.”

Although it remains unclear if any others in the area were hit by the explosion, the strike is in a busy part of the city right beside a traffic intersection known as the Clock Roundabout. It is also a stone’s throw from a mosque and building which has been used as an Islamic court and straddles areas that house a nearby public market.

Sources in Raqqa added that the strike occurred shortly before midnight local time and that at least 14 explosions were counted in the city. The Pentagon confirmed late on Thursday night that US forces had carried out the strike.

Details of the operation are spare, although though there is a strong possibility that the drone took off from a base across the border in Turkey. The Incirlik air base near the southern city of Adana has been hosting US drones which have been targeting Isis. US drones have also taken off from Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, although they are further away.

Updated




Labour MP and former junior minister Ian Austin has backed the drone strike against Emwazi and mocked those (including perhaps his own leader Jeremy Corbyn) who have suggested he should have been taken alive to face trial.




Others have more explicitly attacked Corbyn’s comments.

Commentator Dan Hodges, who left the Labour party after Corbyn was elected, tweeted:


Updated




Majid Freeman, 27, a humanitarian aid worker from Leicester, who was on the convoy with Alan Henning when he was taken capture by Isis in December 2013, said he had mixed feelings about Emwazi’s reported death, writes Helen Pidd.
“Obviously I won’t be shedding any tears for him, but the fact is that I – along with many of the family members of those taken hostage – wanted him to be captured alive and put on trial as a war criminal. If the Americans were able to know where he was and target him in a drone strike, surely they could have captured him as they did last month when they rescued prisoners from an Iraqi jail and arrested Isis fighters?

“Today David Cameron said we never forget our citizens. That’s a bit hypocritical given how the British government blocked efforts to release Alan when he was still alive. The government was happy to forget him when he was still alive. If you have any doubt about that, just look at their actions, which speak louder than their words.”

Freeman claimed former Guantanamo Bay prisoner Moazzam Begg and the advocacy group Cage were trying to appeal to Henning’s captors and were making efforts to get him released before his death but that the government “blocked” them. “Moazzam Begg had been successful before in getting hostages released,” said Freeman. “All the other hostages were killed after one week, but because of the appeals, Alan’s murder was delayed, which gave the family some hope that Alan would be released. But the British military intervention into Syria is what sealed Alan’s fate. Alan didn’t have to die. The government has a lot of questions to answer.”



Capturing Emwazi wouldn’t have worked, but was Britain given the option of conducting the drone strike itself, asks Shashank Joshi senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

Writing on the Guardian Opinion site he says:
Capturing Emwazi is unlikely to have been feasible, given that the strikes appear to have taken place near the Isis stronghold of Raqqa. US special forces had attempted a raid to free hostages held near Raqqa in July 2014, but failed to find them and got caught in a three-hour firefight. Emwazi seems to have been in a more populated area still, raising the risks of a large-scale capture mission.

The interesting question is whether the UK, which was surely closely involved in the hunt for Emwazi, was given the option of conducting the strikes itself. This would have reinforced, legally and politically, the important precedent established by the RAF’s successful targeting of Reyaad Khan and Ruhul Amin in Syria in August. Any such strike would have been feted in most of the British press and welcomed by the UK’s Arab allies eager for greater British involvement. Perhaps the government was deterred by fear of derailing its fading hopes of securing parliamentary support for broader action in Syria, or perhaps it was never asked.

Updated




A Pentagon spokesman for the US mission against Isis is due to give a briefing in 90 minutes or so, that is expected to cover the overnight attacks in Syria.

Colonel Steve Warren’s press conference is due to start at 6pm Iraq time (1500 GMT).



The four-bedroom home formerly occupied by Mohammed Emwazi’s family, in Kilburn, west London, is now home to eight young Italian students, writes Damien Gayle.
They were unaware of its link to the world’s most wanted man. The only evidence that the home once belonged to the Emwazi family was a red water bill addressed to Jasem Emwazi, that had been delivered that morning.

However, one local resident did remember Emwazi and recounted a strange story of the young man’s behaviour several years ago. The man, who gave his name as James and said he had lived in the block for six years, described how three or four years ago he left his home to find Emwazi’s brother being beaten up by a group of other youngsters.

Emwazi was there, James said, but instead of helping his brother, he just watched. “He [the brother] was surrounded by kids. His mum was just coming out shouting in sympathy for her own son getting beaten. And his brother was just watching: cool, not looking angry or happy. He looked like he’s got no conscience.”

Some time after, James, who gave his age as 47, said he saw Emwazi on a bike outside the property, which is in a block of council houses in a residential area. “I asked him, I said why did you allow your brother to get beaten. He said: ‘Not bothered.’”

James said he was not impressed with US forces’ claim to have killed Emwazi. Speaking to reporters, he said: “It would be better if he was captured, at least they could’ve got some information.”



Cage, the advocacy group which campaigns for victims of the War on Terror, said Emwazi’s reported killing presents more questions than it does answers and that Emwazi should have been tried as war criminal.

In a statement it said:
Cage reaffirms its opposition to extrajudicial killing of any kind. State sponsored targeted assassinations undercut the judicial processes that provide the lessons by which spirals of violence can be stopped. Emwazi should have been tried as a war criminal.

Cage would echo the comments of Diane Foley, mother of James, when she said “All people in law enforcement have to be very aware of people’s rights and respect during a very difficult situation...People have the need for respect, no matter who they are and where they are.”

Raqqa residents reported 14 airstrikes last night. It is hard to envisage that Emwazi was the only casualty. Killing civilians has become part and parcel of air strikes.

[Emwazi’s] killing means key crucial questions around his joining Isis, as well as the kidnapping and killing of hostages remain unanswered.

Diane Foley is also right in her thoughtful and dignified response. Where she remarks that the “ huge effort to go after this deranged man filled with hate when they can’t make half that effort to save the hostages while these young Americans were still alive.”

The responsibility for the murders of the hostages lies firmly with Emwazi and his ISIS handlers. His journey to becoming ‘Jihadi John’ however, lay in Britain, as correspondence released by Cage clearly shows.
Cage Director Adnan Siddiqui, added: “Cage’s repeated efforts and offers to negotiate for the release of Alan Henning were obstructed and squandered by the UK government and serious questions remain regarding these failures.”


Updated




Here’s a more detail view of where Raqqa-linked activists said the drone targeting Emwazi struck.

Map of Raqqa showing where a US drone targeting Mohmmed Emwazi is said to have struck
Map of Raqqa showing where a US drone targeting Mohmmed Emwazi is said to have struck


Summary


Here’s a summary of where things currently stand:


Blair urges UK to launch strikes against Isis in Syria


Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair said he is “fully supportive” of Britain joining the US in launching airstrikes against Isis targets in Syria.


Tony Blair says Britain must play its part in alongside allies such as the US in the fight against Isis. At a press conference in Jerusalem about the US drone strike on Mohammed Emwazi, the former prime minister says he would support UK military action in Syria


Corbyn: 'Emwazi held to account for his callous and brutal crimes'


Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has issued a relatively hawkish statement on Emwazi’s apparent killing. He said:

Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn Composite: Getty/Reuters

“We await identification of the person targeted in last night’s US air attack in Syria.

“It appears Mohammed Emwazi has been held to account for his callous and brutal crimes. However, it would have been far better for us all if he had been held to account in a court of law.

“These events only underline the necessity of accelerating international efforts, under the auspices of the UN, to bring an end to the Syrian conflict as part of a comprehensive regional settlement.”
As Patrick Wintour noted earlier Corbyn will have come under pressure from his shadow cabinet to make an unequivocal statement in support of the US drone strike.

Updated




Middle East analysts have taken issue with David Cameron’s claim that targeting Mohammed Emwazi was a “strike at the heart of Isil”.

Chris Doyle, director for Council for Arab-British Understanding, said Emwazi was only a frontman.



Charlie Winter, senior researcher at the anti-extremist thinktank Quilliam Foundation made a similar point on BBC News’ Victoria Live.


Updated




Guardian Visuals has put together this map of where Raqqa activists say the drone struck (see earlier).

Site of the drone strike that targeted Mohammed Emwazi
Site of the drone strike that targeted Mohammed Emwazi, according to activists.

Updated




Here’s Patrick Wintour’s account of Cameron’s statement:


Bethany Haines: 'I felt an instant sense of relief'


Bethany Haines, the daughter of murdered aid worker David Haines, has spoken of her sense of relief at reports of Emwazi’s killing.

Speaking to ITV News she said:
After seeing the news that ‘Jihadi John’ was killed I felt an instant sense of relief, knowing he wouldn’t appear in anymore horrific videos.

He was only a pawn in Isis’s stupid game but knowing it’s over that he’s finally dead still hasn’t sunk in.

As much as I wanted him dead I also wanted answers as to why he did it, why my dad, how did it make a difference?

Updated




The anti-Isis activist group ‘Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently’, which has a network of activists in the city, has pin-pointed an area of the city where it says drone strike hit.

It said the strike occurred at 11.41 pm last night near the Islamic court in the city, but they have been unable to confirm that Enwazi was killed. The group said that Islamic State has set up a massive security cordon around the area near the Islamic court building in the city, where it is believed Emwazi was targeted.




Stuart Henning, the nephew of murdered Isis hostage Alan Henning, said he had “mixed feelings” about Emwazi’s apparent killing.




Initial political reaction to Cameron’s statement and the killing of Emwazi has been mixed.

Ukip’s defence spokesman Mike Hookem said Cameron’s use of language sounded like Tony Blair’s justification of the war on Iraq.


Hareetz columnist Anshel Pfeffer said it was “ridiculous hyperbole” to claim the Emwazi’s apparent killing was a strike at the heart of Isis.


Tory MP Glyn Davies expressed support for the action.




Here are the key points from Cameron’s statement:
  • The prime minister said “we cannot yet be certain” that the US airstrike against Mohammed Emwazi, “known as Jihadi John”, was successful.
  • Cameron said the strike showed that the UK and the US would do “whatever it took” to track down Emwazi. “This was a combined effort and the contributions of both our countries was essential”, he said.
  • Mixing his tenses Cameron said: “Emwazi is a barbaric murderer ... he was Isil’s lead executioner. He posed an ongoing and serious threat to innocent civilians not only in Syria but around the world and in the UK too.”
  • Cameron insisted targeting Emwazi was an “act of self defence” as he was intent on killing many more people.
  • Cameron thanked the US. “The UK has no better friend or ally”, the PM said.
  • If successful the killing of Emwazi was “a strike at the heart of Isil”. He said it demonstrate the “long reach” of the UK and its allies. “Britain and it allies will not rest until it has defeated this evil terrorist death cult,” he said.
Politics Home has the full text of Cameron’s statement.

Updated




Here’s the audio of Cameron’s statement:

He welcomed the reported killing of Emwazi “a strike at the heart” of terror group Islamic State.

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

But he said Britain had been working “hand in glove” round the clock with its closest ally the US to track down and target the militant, who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of several IS hostages, including Britons Alan Henning and David Haines.
In a statement outside 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister said that Emwazi had remained a threat to innocent people, including in the UK.
And he said: “This was an act of self defence. It was the right thing to do.”



Cameron’s says his thoughts are with the victims of Isis. “Nothing will bring back the lives of David and Alan”, the prime minister says. “They were the best of British.”



Cameron describes Emwazi as the “lead executioner” of Isis. He says the airstrike was done in “self-defence”. He thanked the US.



Cameron says “we cannot yet be certain” that the US airstrike against Emwazi was successful.


Cameron due to make a statement


David Cameron is due to make a statement in the next few minutes, PA reports.




Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will be coming under pressure to make an unequivocal statement in support of the US airskrikes, writes Patrick Wintour.
It is unlikely the UK Labour Party will issue any comment until it has heard the statement from the Prime Minister.

Labour is currently opposed to UK involvement in air strikes in Syria, but this action against in Isis in its stronghold was undertaken by the US with British support

Corbyn will be under pressure from the shadow cabinet to make an unequivocal statement in support of the US actions. In the past Corbyn, and other prominent Labour figures, have criticised the use of drones to undertake targeted assassinations. Corbyn even described the death of Osama bin Laden as a tragedy because he had not been subject to a proper trial.

Corbyn has also been pressing the UK to take further diplomatic action to end the war in Syria, while Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond was in Washington this week to confer with US Secretary of State John Kerry on their approach to peace talks due to take place in Vienna on Saturday. The outcome of those talks involving all the major regional partners including Iran will filter into discussions work leaders will have at the G20 summit in Turkey on Sunday and Monday.

The G20 will be the first time Barack Obama has met with President Putin since the Russians began air strikes in Syria to bolster President Assad.

The single biggest stumbling block to peace is the role of Assad in any transitional regime, and which groups including some previously designated terrorist groups that might be allowed to form an interim administration.



A friend of murdered hostage Alan Henning said she is still “sceptical” of the reports that Enmwazi has been killed, PA reports.

Louise Woodward-Styles, who organised a candlelit vigil for the taxi driver after he was captured by the terrorists, said that, even if British-born Emwazi had been killed, the family of the 47-year-old from Salford would not get closure following his brutal murder.

She said: “I don’t think there will be closure, particularly for Alan’s family and close friends.

“His body wasn’t returned home and from that aspect it was something they had to deal with privately. For them to say that Jihadi John has been killed doesn’t mean anything. It is something that the government can say they have done successfully.”

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

“Alan has gone and nothing will bring him back. I’m slightly sceptical about the target being successful. We don’t trust the government when it comes to the war.

“Drones are not the answer, nor is bombing innocent people. I would rather him be brought back to face justice.”

A peace vigil in September 2014 at Bolton Interfaith Church for aid worker Alan Henning while he was being held hostage.
A peace vigil in September 2014 at Bolton Interfaith Church for aid worker Alan Henning while he was being held hostage. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian



Detectives and prosecutors in the UK have been building a case against Emwazi for multiple counts of murder and potential war crimes, in case he was ever captured, writes Vikram Dodd.
The strategy they were following may give an insight into the US and UK’s basis for apparently killing him.

The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed in February it had been working with detectives from Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command to prosecute Emwazi over the videos and other suspected crimes.

A CPS spokesperson at the time said: “We are liaising with the MPS [Metropolitan Police Service] Counter Terrorism Command (SO15) on their assessment of the content of videos that have been posted online that appear to show the murder of hostages.”

SO15 had been studying the videos made and released by Isis in which the murder of hostages were depicted, accompanied by speeches from the former computer studies student.

SO15 also houses Scotland Yard’s war crimes unit, as well as building terrorism cases through its own investigations and based on material from the intelligence services MI5 and MI6.



Didier François, a journalist for French radio station Europe 1, was held hostage for 10 months in Syria where Emwazi was one of his jailers, writes Angelique Chrisafis in Paris.
“He was most probably one of the worst, who hit and tortured without the slightest restraint”, he told Europe 1 after reports that US strikes had targeted Emwazi.

François said Emwazi was “one of the jailers in charge of 19 western hostages taken by Isis in Syria in 2013. He said there was a group of four British jailers and Emwazi had been the head of them.

“Between us, we called them the Beatles because we didn’t know their names.” There was Paul, Ringo and George, Emwazi had the name John. “He was the tallest, the calmest but also the most determined, without the slightest scruple,” François said.

He said he felt Emwazi had been targeted by the US now because “he had become one of the key organisers of recruitment of jihadists in Europe.” He had become the “recruitmant brains for Europe”, he said. He added that Emwazi “took care of selection and then training of jihadists candidates” in order to then send them to carry out attacks back home.
Former French hostage and journalist Didier François describes his 10-month ordeal at the hands of Isis after returning to France
Former French hostage and journalist Didier François describes his 10-month ordeal at the hands of Isis after returning to France Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/REUTERS



From a “painfully shy” football-loving child to the knife-wielding Islamic State militant, the man who became one of the most haunting figures of the jihadi movement remains a mystery even after being the high-profile target of a US airstrike.



Back in February Adam Goldman, a reporter from the Washington Post, discussed co-writing the story which revealed Emwazi’s identity.


Alan Henning's family informed


The family of Alan Henning were informed of the strike against Emwazi, writes Vikram Dodd.
Henning, an aid worker from Salford, was murdered and his death was recorded in a video fronted by Emwazi.

Foreign Office officials informed Henning’s family and support is also being provided by liaison officers from Greater Manchester Police.

In 2014 Henning was shown being killed in an ISIS video, despite appeals for him to be spared, including from fundamentalist Islamic figures.
Family handout photo of Isis victim Alan Henning.
Family handout photo of Isis victim Alan Henning. Photograph: Family Handout/PA



The Ramadhan Foundation, a UK-based Muslim group committed to dialogue between communities, described the apparent killing of Emwazi as a “signficant moment”.

But its chief executive, Mohammed Shafiq, said extra-judicial killings should not become the norm. In a statement he said:
The killing of Mohammed Emwazi in Syria is a significant moment in the fight to get justice for David Haines, Alan Henning and all the victims of this evil man.

The Ramadhan Foundation joins the victims of Isis and their families in preferring him to have being captured alive so he would have seen justice in a court of law but understand why this wasn’t possible. Extra judicial killing over justice in a court of law should not become the norm in fight against terrorism.

Mohammed Emwazi manifested the evil and barbaric nature of this terrorist entity called Daesh which has killed thousands of Muslims, Christians, Yazidis. There is nothing he said or stood for which would justify his barbaric crimes and actions.

Isis distort Islamic teaching to justify their violent crimes and its this ideology which we have been confronting and will continue to do. Terrorism has no religion and there can never be any justification or excuses for such actions.

Emwazi will now face justice in the court of God for the evil crimes he committed. Today we think of David Haines, Alan Henning, James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig and all his victims brutally killed and their families”



The anti-Isis activist group ‘Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently’, which has a network of activists in the city claims there was drone strike at 11.41 pm last night near the Islamic court in the city, writes Kareem Shaheen.

But they have been unable to confirm that Enwazi was killed. The group said that Islamic State has set up a massive security cordon around the area of last night’s strike near the Islamic court building in the city, where it is believed Emwazi was targetted.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says it has confirmed from sources inside the city that a senior British figure in Isis was killed in the airstrikes last night, but has not identified him by name.

Map showing Raqqa in north east Syria
Map showing Raqqa in north east Syria

Updated




Confirming a “kill” in a targeted attack by plane or drone on hostile territory is done in the first instance by monitoring communications – mobile phones, radio etc – in the area of operations, writes the Guardian’s Middle East editor Ian Black.
The optimal and foolproof method of confirmation is to take a DNA sample of the victim’s remains and check it against material obtained from relatives.

But the ability to do that depends on access on the ground, which is unlikely in Raqqa, capital of the Islamic State.

If Emwazi is really dead, Isis will likely eventually make its own announcement. It may also deny the US claim. Given the group’s slick propaganda abilities, any statements will be subject to close scrutiny and verification.

Information about the reported killing and Emwazi’s high profile suggest he was under extremely tight surveillance that is likely to have combined sophisticated technical means and human intelligence: that means that whatever can be heard or seen remotely by US or allied intelligence can be supplemented by visual or other observation from an agent in the area.

In 2011, when US special forces killed the al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout, his corpse was transported to a ship for DNA tests that confirmed his identity before a funeral in the Arabian Sea. In Yemen, another theatre of operations against jihadi militants, Saudi Arabia regularly takes DNA samples of wanted men it has targeted. In several drone strikes against leaders of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, tests did not confirm that they were the correct target.

Earlier this year the FBI confirmed the death of a wanted Jemaah Islamiya terorrist, Zulkifli bin Hir, after conducting DNA tests on a severed finger found at the scene of the commando raid that killed him in the Philippines. Three years earlier he had been reported killed in an air strike.



The Joint committee on Human Rights, chaired by the former Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, has launched an inquiry into the legal basis of the targeted drone strikes by UK military.

Harman has written [pdf] to the Attorney General Jeremy Wright, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and and Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon asking for the legal basis of the strikes.

The Committee has requested from the ministers a clear statement by next week of the Government’s policy on the use of drones for targeted killing; a comprehensive description of the legal framework, the existing guidance, the decision making process which precedes ministerial authorisation, and a summary of the existing accountability mechanisms.



Charlie Winter, senior researcher at the anti-extremist thinktank the Quilliam Foundation said the airstrikes demonstrates the strength of US intelligence against Isis, writes Josh Halliday.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Winter said:
“The fact he has been potentially killed is going to have reverberations and it will identify a very powerful asset that the coalition has - good, sound intelligence that means they can carry out surgical strikes on individual targets in Raqqa. That will perhaps count into the calculations of foreign fighters who are thinking of going to Syria, people who are thinking of joining the group because they want to have an adventure.”

“Even if he hasn’t been killed, the very fact that there was an airstrike that was targeting him and the Americans are confident in the fact they did target a convoy with Jihadi John in it - that does demonstrate they have operational intelligence of what’s happening on the ground in Syria.”
Winter also pointed out that Emwazi hasn’t been seen in public since 31 January when he appeared in a video apparently killing the Japanese man Kenji Goto.



David Cameron’s office has confirmed that he will make a statement later on Friday, but hasn’t said when. It said:
“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.”


McGurk: 'precision airstrike targeted Emwazi'


Brett McGurk, Barack Obama’s deputy special envoy on countering Isis, described the attack on Emwazi as as a “precision airstrike”.


The Pentagon’s mentioned an attack near Raqqah in its almost daily summary of continued airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. It said:
On Nov. 12, coalition military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria and Iraq. In Syria, coalition military forces conducted eight strikes using fighter, attack, and remotely piloted aircraft. Separately in Iraq, coalition military forces conducted 18 strikes coordinated with and in support of the Government of Iraq using bomber, fighter and remotely piloted aircraft against ISIL targets.

The following is a summary of the strikes conducted against ISIL since the last press release:

Syria
  • Near Al Hawl, seven strikes struck six separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL vehicles, and an ISIL mortar position.
  • Near Ar Raqqah, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
Iraq
  • Near Albu Hayat, one strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL vehicles and an ISIL fighting position.
  • Near Ramadi, two strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL tunnel, an ISIL building, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL mortar position, and an ISIL fighting position.
  • Near Sinjar, twelve strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 27 ISIL fighting positions, three ISIL heavy machine guns, five ISIL vehicles, an ISIL vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), 11 ISIL staging areas, and denied ISIL access to terrain.
  • Near Tal Afar, one strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL light machine gun, an ISIL vehicle, an ISIL VBIED, and an ISIL fighting position.
  • Near Kisik, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL light machine gun and an ISIL fighting position.
  • Near Mosul, one strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.
Strike assessments are based on initial reports. All aircraft returned to base safely.

Updated




The prime minister’s offices acknowledges that Cameron would not be planning to make a statement in Downing Street unless British military sources were close to certain that he had been killed, Patrick Wintour adds.
But Cameron may wait until the afternoon to make a statement to ensure intelligence and military sources have gathered the maximum amount of information.

The legal right of British military to conduct drone strikes in Syria is questioned, although in this case it was a US strike in which Britain intelligence had been involved.

Government sources also acknowledged that his demise was being discussed on social media within Syria.


Downing street: 'high degree of certainty' Enwazi was killed


David Cameron will make a statement from Downing Street on Mohammed Emwazi following reports this morning from America that the US military are 99% certain that he has been killed in a drone strike, writes Patrick Wintour.
Number 10 and Ministry of Defence sources were marginally less certain in their response to the reports of his death that US sources, but the plan is for Cameron to make a statement later today.
Number 10 sources said there was a high degree of certainty that he has been killed, and added UK military had been working hand in glove with America on the operation.

Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a statement that the military was “assessing the results” of the strike to determine if Emwazi had been killed.

Enwazi is regarded as the most dangerous British member of Isis.
He became notorious in videos in late 2014 and early 2015 killing several American and other Western hostages.

Emwazi, born in Kuwait and came to Britain in London, has appeared as a black-masked figure in videos in which the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and the American aid worker Peter Kassig were beheaded. Jihadi John to travelled to Syria in 2012 and first showed up in Islamic State videos in August 2014.

The drone was undertaken with hellfire missiles and the attack took place in Raqqa the headquarters of Isis in eastern Syria.

Government sources said his possible death is different from the killing of Reyaad Khan, a 21-year-old from Cardiff who was assassinated in a long-planned RAF drone strike and last night’s strike may have been a strike of opportunity by the US, as part of the coalition’s general fight against Isis.

Two other Isis fighters were killed alongside Khan, in the attack on the Syrian city of Raqqa on 21 August. One of them, Ruhul Amin, 26, was also British.

Cameron justified that killing in the sovereign territory of another country on the basis that Khan represented a specific threat to UK security, and that he had exercised the country’s “inherent right to self-protection”.

He said the strike was not part of the coalition’s general fight against Isis in Syria.

“It was necessary and proportionate for the individual self-defence of the UK,” Cameron told MPs.

Updated




Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said on Friday afternoon that Tokyo was liaising with Washington over the outcome of today’s air strikes.

Suga said the Japanese government was “aware of the Pentagon’s press statement on this matter, and we understand that the Pentagon is assessing the results of the operation. The government of Japan is in contact with the US government about the details”.

Emwazi is believed to have beheaded two Japanese hostages, journalist Kenji Goto and security consultant Haruna Yukawa, earlier this year.

In late January Islamic State released a video, called A Message to the Government of Japan, showing a militant who looks and sounds like Emwazi. The man, armed with a knife and dressed in black with his face covered, stands behind Goto before beheading him.

Isis had targeted Japanese citizens after the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, publicly pledged 200 million US dollars in non-military aid to countries engaged in the fight against the group.


Jihadi John targeted in US airstrikes


Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State executioner known as Jihadi John, has been targeted by US airstrikes in the Syrian city of Raqqa on Thursday.

The Pentagon said that a drone had targeted a vehicle believed to be carrying Emwazi in Raqqa, the de facto capital of Isis in northern Syria.

There are reports claiming US sources are “99% sure” the extremist was killed in the strike, but these have not yet been independently verified by the Guardian. Activist groups in Raqqa reported airstrikes and an explosion through the night of 12 November.

A statement by Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook says:
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.

Updated


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