Jihadi killed in drone

Syria: Ex-Aberdeen schoolboy died along with target Khan and other Brit

A British jihadi killed in an unprecedented RAF drone strike in Syria was a prolific recruiter and attack planner for Islamic State, a major new report reveals.

Main target Reyaad Khan was killed alongside former Aberdeen schoolboy Abdul Raqib Amin and Junaid Hussain, from Birmingham, when his jeep was targeted by a drone.

“Numerous plots to murder large numbers of UK citizens”

Yesterday, MPs and peers given high-level access to intelligence reports into the attack said they were “in no doubt” Khan posed a “very serious threat”.

He “orchestrated numerous plots to murder large numbers of UK citizens and those of our allies, as part of a wider terrorist group which considers itself at war with the West,” according to the assess- ment from the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).

Khan, from Cardiff, was targeted by a remotely piloted aircraft in August 2015 in the Raqqah area of Syria.

Former Aberdeen man Amin, who had been converted into a poster boy for IS, was also in the jeep at the time.

The operation that killed the 21-year-old Khan was the first time that the UK had conducted a lethal drone strike against a terrorist target outside of participation in a military campaign.

Then prime minister David Cameron announced that the UK had conducted the drone strike in a statement on the threat posed by IS, also known as Isil or Daesh, in September 2015.

But the ISC’s report provides the first detailed account of the intelligence amassed by security services on Khan before he was targeted.

Conservative MP Dominic Grieve, the committee’s chairman, said: “In terms of the severity of the threat posed by Reyaad Khan, it appears from the 25 intelligence reports and two formal intelligence assessments that we have seen, that Khan was a prolific recruiter and attack planner.”

With fellow plotter Hussain, Khan “encouraged multiple operatives around the world to conduct attacks against the UK and our allies” over the course of nine months, Mr Grieve said.

He added: “They provided practical instructions for the manufacture of bombs, and information on targets.”

Hussain, 21, from Birmingham, died in a US air strike three days after Khan was killed.

One MI5 assessment compiled in July 2015 noted that “a body of reliable and corroborated reporting indicates Khan, alongside Hussain, continues to be involved in a concerted and prolific online campaign to recruit, task and encourage operatives in the west to conduct attacks in the name of ISIL.”

Another intelligence document describes how

WRONG PLACE: Aberdeen man Abdul Raqib Amin also died in the jeep targeted in a drone attack, where Reyaad Khan was the main target

Abdul Raqib Amin on a night out with friends