“Jihadi John,” horrified the world with his brutal beheadings of hostages. His videos, with sneering taunts of the West, served as a recruiting tool for those drawn to the dark, bloody world of ISIS extremism… but if reports are correct, he’s filmed his last.
U.S. officials have “99% certainty” that the U.S. drone strike that annihilated a vehicle in Syria Thursday was carrying the infamous Islamic State militant Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John”.
Emwazi’s videos would show his brown eyes peering out from a black mask and his London accent became the first contact many around the world had with ISIS.
His first filmed killing was that of American journalist James Foley in a video released in August 2014. Tabloids soon made famous the moniker “Jihadi John,” based on nicknames freed hostages said they gave their British-sounding captors, a reference to Beatles member John Lennon.
In some ways, the violence he committed was not new — the dark horror of beheading videos haunted the Middle East before.
The Islamic State’s predecessor, al-Qaida in Iraq, released footage in 2004 of the decapitation of American businessman Nicholas Berg. In the video of his killing, Foley wore an orange prison-style jumpsuit similar to the one Berg wore at his death.
But while the statement in the video of Berg’s killing was in Arabic, Emwazi spoke English in his videos, making the message even easier for the world to understand. Born in Kuwait, Emwazi grew up in Britain, giving him added symbolic weight.
“You’re hearing it in your own language so the threat sounds all the more menacing,” said Raffaello Pantucci, the author of “We Love Death As You Love Life: Britain’s Suburban Terrorists” and the director of international security studies at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.
“It speaks to the audience and says, you know, ‘We are you. … You think we’re this alien thing but actually no, we’re from within your very communities,'” Pantucci added.
After Foley’s killing, Emwazi appeared in other videos of beheadings, including the mass killing of captive Syrian soldiers. In most, he acts as a narrator, taunting the West and promising an Islamic State victory, though the videos don’t make clear if he carried out all of the actual killings.
Militant sympathizers uploaded the carnage to websites and shared them via mobile phone apps in a way impossible only 10 years earlier. That drew more people curious about the Islamic State’s apocalyptic beliefs, inspiring some to join the militant’s self-declared “caliphate.”
Emwazi has been one of the West’s top targets after Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his other lieutenants.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
Personally, I will never understand why they feel they are doing God’s work by beheading God’s child. When he stands before our Father who created all things, it will be too late to repent.
that is judgement, repenting time is long past. He will roast will all the rest who deny God and are not obedient. No more “God have mercy on his soul” The judge, Christ will only judge according to the deed done in the flesh. From that there IS no appeal.
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jihadi John has now learned that he was deceived. He has now learned that hell doesn’t come with 72 virgins and an eternity of getting to commit adultery with those virgins. In reality hell is a place of torture and Jihadi John will be there, along with his heroes Mohammad and Osama bin Laden, forever. My only regret is that his death probably came more quickly and painlessly than the torture he put his victims through.
I’m glad the military was able to end this evil person’s time on earth. Enjoy hell, Jihadi John, it was made for demons like you.
Amen to that! You have it correct, my friend!
We know what he did! How did they find out about how he was he killed? I must have missed something! I thought that was what the article was going to be about.
Watch the news. They will explain.
he is in Purgatory pray for his purified soul
NO THANKS! Why pray for something evil?
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
I don’t belive it. American people are so naive . I have to see him, with his Eyes rolled back and a bullet hole in his forhead to belive. They feeding us with crap , so we shut up and think they are great and protecting us from evil .
Until we see pictures of this guy, showing he is indeed dead, just like with Osama Bin Laden it could be a ploy by this Administration to convince people they are really trying to fight terrorism.
Word was John had fled to Tunisia because he feared US or UK retaliation. Not convinced they really got him,
There is no body left to see. I’m sure the was practically vaporized in the explosion. Perhaps a small piece that they can get a DNA sample from to compare to someone in his family back in England if they can get to the location to collect one.
It takes time to be decapitated with a knife. From the moment of the first cut to the gushing of blood, to the repeated hacks of the knife and the sawing back & forth while you are still alive as you drown slowly in your own blood. Your brain continues to function for another 2 or 3 minutes after no more oxygen reaches it. The entire sequence takes many minutes during which the victim feels everything. Being snuffed in an explosion from a drone is immediate; no pain, you
re just gone. Where’s the justice in that? It’s not even close.
Jahadi John is asleep knowing nothing. Until Christ calls him from his state of sleep (Death and the Grave )he suffers no pain.When Christ judges all peoples from Adam until the last man.The wicked will be cast into the lake of fire where they will perish be burnt up for they shall experience eternal death,where as Christs people will experience eternal life.The world is full of people like John.
Let us hope the report is 100% truth! However, it would have been far better to have sawed his head off slowly with a chain saw, after he had been thoroughly and viciously flogged. The man went far too easily, instantly and painlessly. However, he is indeed in Hell, where he will suffer in agony and torment for eternity. God already made the arrangements and I cannot think of a better place for him.
Just like bin ladin, there’s no “body”. The liars can claim anything they want, but there’s no definitive proof that these
pos’ are really dead.
C’mon Buster – Get real. They have more ways of finding these things out than you’d ever realize! Why else would they blow this vehicle up? You’d be surprised how much the Amricans and their Allies can see what’s going on and who’s doing what! Don’t forget they can read a newspaper’s headlines from space for example and can easily recognize who’s who getting into and out of a vehicle.