Peter Cook

The Pentagon says a US airstrike has targeted the man known as “Jihadi John” who appeared in several beheading videos carried out by the group calling itself Islamic State, or ISIL. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the airstrike was carried out in the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa and targeted Mohamed Emwazi. It was not clear whether he died in the operation. The results of the strike were being assessed. Emwazi appears in videos showing the killings of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. Emwazi was born in Kuwait and moved to Britain as a child. He was a member of a wealthy family living in west London before it is believed he became radicalised around 2009 when he graduated. He was then arrested when trying to enter Tanzania and then interrogated by MI5 in the Netherlands on his return journey. The following year he was detained again and fingerprinted, and prevented from going to Kuwait where he wanted to marry a local woman. Statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook on Airstrike in #Raqqa, #Syria pic.twitter.com/zvy9Dn59TW— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) November 13, 2015