Accessibility links

Breaking News

IS Acknowledges Death of 'Jihadi John'

update

FILE - "Jihadi John," a militant who has been identified by the Washington Post newspaper as a Briton named Mohammed Emwazi, brandishes a knife in this still image from a 2014 video obtained from SITE Intel Group.
FILE - "Jihadi John," a militant who has been identified by the Washington Post newspaper as a Briton named Mohammed Emwazi, brandishes a knife in this still image from a 2014 video obtained from SITE Intel Group.

Islamic State Tuesday acknowledged the death of the brutal terrorist nicknamed Jihadi John, known for beheading Western hostages.

The SITE intelligence monitoring website says Islamic State eulogized the killer in its English language magazine.

The Pentagon said in November that it was "reasonably certain" a drone strike in Syria killed Jihadi John.

Jihadi John's real name was Mohammed Emwazi, a British citizen of Arab descent. He was known for appearing in videos wearing a black mask over his face, denouncing the West before cutting off the heads of hostages, including U.S. journalists and British aid workers.

He got his nickname from a former Spanish hostage who said his four captors and their British accents reminded him of the Beatles, dubbing Emwazi Jihadi John for John Lennon.

FILE - “Jihadi John” stands next to a man purported to be Steven Sotloff in this still image from a video obtained from SITE Intel Group website, Feb. 26, 2015.
FILE - “Jihadi John” stands next to a man purported to be Steven Sotloff in this still image from a video obtained from SITE Intel Group website, Feb. 26, 2015.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG