Date: 2024-10-19 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00010642
Terrorism
ISIS
The US has claimed it is ‘99% certain’ it has killed Mohammed Emwazi - AKA ‘Jihadi John’ - in a drone strike.
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
The US has claimed it is ‘99% certain’ it has killed Mohammed Emwazi - AKA ‘Jihadi John’ - in a drone strike.
The people of Syria and Iraq, as well as those unfortunate enough to fall into Isis’s hands, are no doubt better off with Mohammed Emwazi – “Jihadi John” – killed in a US drone strike, if early reports are correct.
But Emwazi was neither an especially senior figure in the group, nor in possession of specialist skills such as bomb manufacture, nor even an important battlefield figure. His significance lay in his London-accented English and enigmatic appearance, both of which served to terrorise us through familiarity. This was not an anonymous Jordanian or an Iraqi with a shadowy Baathist past, but someone educated in St John’s Wood, Queen’s Park and Westminster. An Englishman with an antique, silver-handled sword. This is surely why he was chosen to front Isis’s grisly, cinematic murders. He was a potent symbol and instrument of Isis’s reach into the west. That potency was intensified by the media’s eagerness to style him as the personification of Isis malevolence.
We knew that Emwazi was in the crosshairs. The then US attorney general, Eric Holder, had said as much in February. And legitimately so. Though Isis’s stock of hostages was dwindling, they had more in their possession and had openly threatened to keep murdering them. 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.
Who is Mohammed Emwazi? From shy, football-loving boy to Isis killer Read more Ultimately, the importance of Emwazi’s death is not in proportion to the headlines it will inevitably generate. He had been quiet for most of the year, with his last known murders – of two Japanese citizens – coming in January 2015, 10 months before his death. This may have been a shift in strategy (though Isis did murder a Syrian archaeologist in August) or an effort to evade what would have been intensifying western efforts at detection. More significant than this loss, in fact, is that he was tracked down at all. That it took so long to find him is a testament to the group’s good operational security, but that he was eventually found might suggest the role of a human source within Isis, which has been – relative to al-Qaida – a porous organisation vulnerable to infiltration. This could discomfit the leadership. After all, if Emwazi’s location could be compromised by an insider, then so too could that of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
More broadly, the US-led coalition will welcome any piece of good news in a campaign that has generally gone badly. This week’s Kurdish offensive in Sinjar, Iraq, will also be heartening. But the real strategic prizes – Isis’s territorial holdings, notably Raqqa and the large Iraqi city of Mosul – remain some way out of the coalition’s grasp. Emwazi, despite his gruesome theatre, was a sideshow to this larger political and military struggle.
'High degree of certainty' that US strike killed Mohammed Emwazi ... Pentagon confirms airstrike targeted Islamic State extremist in Syria ... ‘High degree of certainty’ Emwazi was killed by US hellfire missiles ... UK and US military worked ‘hand in glove’, British sources say
Student ID photograph of Mohammed Emwazi, the Isis terrorist known as ‘Jihadi John’. Student ID photograph of Mohammed Emwazi, the Isis terrorist known as ‘Jihadi John’. Photograph: REX Claire Phipps, Patrick Wintour and Justin McCurry in Tokyo Friday 13 November 2015 07.22 EST Last modified on Friday 13 November 2015 13.50 EST Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Google+ Shares 6,472 Comments 5,334 Save for later
The British and US military worked “hand in glove” to launch an airstrike against notorious Islamic State extremist Mohammed Emwazi, the UK government has confirmed, with sources adding that there was a “high degree of certainty” he was killed in the attack.
The Pentagon confirmed late on Thursday night that US forces carried out an airstrike in Syria targeting Emwazi, the British-born Isis terrorist known as “Jihadi John” after appearing in gruesome propaganda videos depicting the beheadings of eight hostages. Who is Mohammed Emwazi? From shy, football-loving boy to Isis killer Read more David Cameron made a statement from Downing Street on Friday morning confirming the attack amid reports that US officials were “99% certain” that Emwazi had been killed in a drone strike. The prime minister said it had not been confirmed that Emwazi was dead, but described the strike as “an act of self-defence” that struck at the heart of Islamic State. Cameron added that Britain had been working “hand in glove, round the clock” with the US to track down and target Emwazi. He said Emwazi was a threat to innocent people around the world, adding: “This was an act of self-defence. It was the right thing to do.” Downing Street and Ministry of Defence sources were marginally less categorical in their response to the reports of his death than US sources, but added there was a “high degree of certainty that he has been killed”. Play VideoPlayMute Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 0:56 Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Fullscreen Facebook Twitter Pinterest David Cameron: airstrike on Mohammed Emwazi ‘act of self defence’ Announcing details of the strike late on Thursday night, the Pentagon press secretary, Peter Cook, said: “US forces conducted an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, on 12 November 2015 targeting Mohamed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John. “Emwazi, a British citizen, participated in the videos showing the murders of US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, American aid worker Abdul-Rahman [Peter] 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.” Masked man believed to be Mohammed Emwazi in a frame from an Islamic State video. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Masked man believed to be Mohammed Emwazi in a frame from an Islamic State video. Photograph: Uncredited/AP Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour party, said it would have been preferable for Emwazi to have faced justice in a court of law. “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.” US 'reasonably certain' it has killed 'Jihadi John' – as it happened Follow the latest updates after the US carried out a drone strike in Syria targeting Mohammed Emwazi, the British Isis terrorist referred to as ‘Jihadi John’ Read more The Associated Press quoted an unnamed US official saying that a drone had targeted a vehicle believed to be carrying Emwazi in Raqqa, the de facto capital of Isis in northern Syria. Fox News said a senior US military source said it was “99% sure we got him”. Activist groups in Raqqa reported airstrikes and an explosion during the night of 12 November. A US military statement said one of eight strikes in Syria on Thursday had struck an Isis tactical unit. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, added that Tokyo was liaising with Washington over the outcome of the airstrikes. 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. Advertisement Isis had targeted Japanese citizens after the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, publicly pledged $200m (£131m) in non-military aid to countries engaged in the fight against the group. The family of Alan Henning, the British hostage killed by Islamic State in October 2014, was informed of the strike against Emwazi by Foreign Office officials. Henning, an aid worker from Salford, was murdered and his death was recorded in a video fronted by Emwazi. Support is also being provided to Henning’s family by liaison officers from Greater Manchester police. Diane Foley, the mother of James Foley, told ABC News that should Emwazi have been killed in the strike, it would be “really a small solace to us”. “This 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,” she said. CNN reported that the families of Emwazi’s American victims had been informed of the strike. Emwazi was born in Kuwait in 1988 and came to the UK in 1994 when he was six years old. His parents reported him missing in August 2013 and were reportedly told by police, four months later, that he was in Syria. Mohammed Emwazi: from west London to Syria. In August 2014, he made his first appearance – with his face covered – in the Islamic State video showing the beheading of Foley. In the following months he featured in similar propaganda films showing the killings of Sotloff, Haines and Henning. In November 2014, Emwazi was believed to have carried out the killing of a Syrian military officer. He was filmed standing over the severed head of Kassig, and two months later appeared in a video killing Goto. His nickname “Jihadi John” was given to him by a group of hostages, who described him as part of an Isis cell they named “the Beatles” because of their British accents. In February 2015, his identity was confirmed as Emwazi. Play VideoPlayMute Current Time 0:00 / Duration Time 1:08 Loaded: 0% Progress: 0% Fullscreen Embed Facebook Twitter Pinterest Adam Goldman, a reporter from the Washington Post, discusses co-writing the story which revealed the identity of Islamic State (Isis) murderer Mohammed Emwazi in February Spanish journalist Javier Espinosa, who was freed in March 2014 after six months being held hostage by Isis in Syria, later wrote in El Mundo of his experiences at Emwazi’s hands. “Jihadi John wanted maximum drama. He had brought along an antique sword of the kind Muslim armies used in the middle ages. It was a blade of almost a metre in length with a silver handle.” Espinosa said the Isis militant would describe in graphic detail how he would behead his hostages and carried out mock executions with a Glock pistol