ISIS' notorious beheading executioner, Jihadi John hit by U.S. airstrike - could be SUFFERING or could be DEAD

Pentagon expressing '99 percent' certain of death

ISIS' notorious British executioner, Jihadi John has reportedly been killed in a U.S. airstrike in the heart of the Islamic State's Syrian capital. Pentagon officials are stating they are "99 percent sure" they have completely obliterated the executioner, who's real name is Mohammed Emwazi.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Jihadi John has appeared in many of ISIS' most sickening beheading videos, including American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley; American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig; and British aid workers, Alan Henning and David Haines.

"US forces conducted an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, on November 12, 2015 targeting Mohamed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John," explained Pentagon Press secretary Peter Cook. "We are assessing the results of tonight's operation and will provide additional information as and where appropriate."

"We are 99 per cent sure we got him. We were on him for some time," stated a senior US defense official to Fox News.

According to another defense source, the attack on the Kuwaiti-born militant, was "flawless" and a "clean hit."

The U.S. drone strike has come after "persistent surveillance" of Emwazi. It is believed the drone was tracking the executioner for most of the previous day and he was officially "ID'd and engaged" once he stepped out of a building and entered a vehicle in Raqqa.

The Anti-ISIS activist group, Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RIBSS) has reported that Emwazi was killed around 11:40 p.m. on Thursday, November 12.

"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," explained Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron, who did not confirm the death of Emwazi and is reportedly expressing he is not certain it has been successful. "We have been working, with the United States, literally around the clock to track him down. This was a combined effort. And the contribution of both our countries was essential.

"Emwazi is 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. He was ISIL's lead executioner and let us never forget that he killed many, many, Muslims too. And he was intent on murdering many more people. So this was an act of self-defense. It was the right thing to do."

However, ISIS has claimed Jihadi John survived the attack and is badly injured in a hospital placed on lock down by Sunni fanatics.

"All the sources there are saying that the body of an important British Jihadi is lying in the hospital of Raqqa," expressed the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights chief Rami Abdel Rahman, explaining a car carrying four foriegn ISIS leaders was hit with an airstrike. "All the sources are saying it is of Jihadi John but I cannot confirm it personally."

According to Raffaello Pantucci, director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute, if confirmed, Emwazi's death doesn't really make any big strategic difference and may open up a "martyr culture" around him. "It's more a symbolic strike, he said. "Tactically it's not really going to change anything for the group."

But others are saying the death of Jihadi John could play a major blow for ISIS as he is seen as the face of ISIS by many.

"Symbolically it's really important. Jihadi John... was someone who was a source of hubris, a sort of an aspirational figure for fighters in Islamic State," stated Charlie Winter, a British academic from the Quilliam Foundation that focuses on ISIS activities. "He was a key figure of defiance in the face of the international coalition, so if in fact he has been killed, this is going to be a big blow."

While some of Jihadi John's victims' families are looking at the news of the executioner's death as an opening for closure, others are not enthusiastic about the reports.

"If they got him great. But it doesn't bring my son back," expressed Steven Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff.

"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," stated Diane Foley, mother to James Foley.

Nephew to the British aid worker Alan Henning, explained he had mixed feelings because he had "wanted the coward behind the mask to suffer."

Questions of whether Jihadi John was actually brought to justice with the reported death and whether or not they should have attempted to capture him to interrogate and put him on trial are circulating around those affected and involved.

"We are still assessing the results of this strike, but the terrorists associated with Daesh [ISIS] need to know this: Your days are numbered, and you will be defeated," expressed US Secretary of State, John Kerry. "There is no future, no path forward for Daesh, which does not lead ultimately to its elimination, to its destruction."

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