UK’s ‘jihadi bride’ moves up in US’ kill list: Report
Britain's most notorious female terror suspect Sally Jones has become a target of American authorities after new evidence pointed to her involvement in at least a dozen Islamic State plots around the world.
The 49-year-old, a motherof-two from Kent in southeast England, is regarded by the Pentagon as a "high priority" for assassination in Syria after it emerged that the so-called "jihadi bride" of British terror suspect Junaid Hussain is among the most prolific Western recruiters and attack planners for ISIS, The Sunday Times said.
One plot involved kidnapping a US Army veteran and beheading him on camera in his home before broadcasting the murder to the world. Another foiled attack was to be carried out by a teenager opening fire on hundreds of people at a concert or nightclub, the newspaper said.
Almost all the plots involving Jones or her husband Hussain have targeted the military — including Royal Air Force (RAF) bases in Britain — making the Pentagon's desire to eliminate her highly personal.
Jones, however, is believed to be using her 11-year-old son Jojo as a shield to avoid the same fate as her husband.
Hussain, a former computer hacker from Birmingham, was killed by a US drone strike in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa after he apparently slipped up and left a building without the child at his side.
Jones, a former guitarist in an all-girl punk band, has another son, 19-year-old Jonathan, who stayed in Britain.
Although he died in August 2015, the full extent of Hussain's influence and that of his Muslim convert wife — nicknamed "Mr and Mrs Terror" — are emerging only now.
US court documents link the couple to numerous attacks and plots, spanning three continents, the newspaper said.
Jones recruited women while Hussain mainly targeted vulnerable men as the leader of an elite group of English- speaking attack planners in Syria known as 'The Legion' or the 'Raqqa 12'.