The targeted strike against the Kuwait-born British national, whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi, was confirmed by British Prime Minister David Cameron right in the middle of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to UK, a contrasting reminder of the many such terrorists New Delhi has failed to eliminate.
Although Cameron was circumspect about confirming Emwazi's death pending corroboration, US officials were a little more upfront, saying it was all but certain `Jihadi John' was toast. "He walked out of a building and got in the car. We struck it right after with zero collateral damage," a counter-terrorism official told ABC News late on Thursday . "The vehicle was on fire. It was a 100% flawless, direct hit."
Cameron meanwhile said that if the strike was successful, it was an "act of self-defence" and "the right thing to do" -a sharp contrast to the forbearance that New Delhi practices on the advice of Washington and London.
"I have always said that we would do whatever was necessary, whatever it took, to track down Emwazi and stop him taking the lives of others... he was a barbaric murderer... He posed an ongoing and serious threat to innocent civilians not only in Syria, but around the world, and in the United Kingdom too," the British PM said, only hours after discussing with Modi the steps to meet the challenge of terrorism. Both London and Mumbai have been victims of terrorism with the common thread being the Pakistani origin of its perpetrators.
Emwazi, who moved to Britain with his parents when he was six, had an undergrad degree in business management and was said to be a Beatles fan -he was dubbed `Jihadi John' after John Lennon, much to the disgust of Ringo Starr, a surviving Beatle.
He first came into the public view in August 2014, when he appeared as a black-hooded, knife-wielding figure in a video that showed him beheading American journalist and hostage James Foley in a grisly spectacle that shocked the world. Among the executions that were attributed to `Jihadi John' were the decapitation of Steven Sotloff, another American journalist; Abdul-Rahman Kassig, an American aid worker; David Haines and Alan Henning, both British aid workers; and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.
The videos were so grisly and shocking that although western intelligence agencies believed Emwazi to be a low-level grunt in the IS pecking order, they determined he needed to be eliminated to make the point that such gruesome murders will not go unpunished.
IS claims Lebanon bombings which killed 43, injured 200
Schools and universities across Lebanon were shut down on Friday as the country mourned victims of twin suicide bombings that struck a crowded neighbourhood south of the capital, Beirut. The bombings on Thursday killed at least 43 people and wounded more than 200 others, shattering a relative calm that has held for more than a year despite the civil war raging next door in Syria. The IS militant group claimed the attack on the predominantly Shia neighbourhood of Burj al-Barajneh, which is heavily populated and dominated by the Hezbollah militant group.
Iraqi-Kurdish forces take over IS-held town of Sinjar
Dealing a double blow to the IS group, Iraqi Kurdish forces pushed into the key town of Sinjar on Friday while a coalition of Arab, Christian and Kurdish rebel factions in northern Syria captured an IS-held town near the Syria-Iraq border. In Iraq, the Kurdish forces raised a Kurdish flag in the center of Sinjar and a top official said it was liberated, though US and Kurdish military officials urged caution in declaring victory. Across the border in Syria, the Democratic Forces of Syria seized the town of Hol in northern Hassakeh province.
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