The ISIS militant known as Jihadi John has been unmasked. (Photo : Reuters)
Is Jihadi John's beheading days finally over? The western world is waiting for confirmation if Britain-born Mohamed Emwazi, more known as Jihadi John, the black-clad decapitator of Islamic State (IS) hostages, was killed a drone attack launched by the U.S. on Thursday night.
The Washington Post reports that Emwazi was the target of the drone attack. But Pentagon is still determining if the strike was successful. "We are assessing the results of tonight's operation and will provide additional information as and where appropriate," says Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.
According to Cook, the drone attack was held in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS. Jihadi John is number one on the kill list of the U.S. and UK. The numbers 2 and 3 terrorists on UK's list have been killed the past few weeks by drone attacks also.
CNN reports that Jihadi John was in a vehicle during the drone strike. The result of persistent surveillance, authorities say they knew it was Emwazi who was in the vehicle when it was shot.
Emwazi, based on the videos posted by the IS on YouTube, is the one who beheaded American hostages Steven Sotloff and James Foley, British captives David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
He was called by hostages as "John" due to his British accent and named after "Imagine" singer John Lennon, one of the members of the famous British boy band Beatles. Besides beheading the hostages, Emwazi is believed to have taken part in torturing the captives by wakeboarding and hitting them
