‘White Widow,’ son, killed in CIA drone strike
NEW YORK — A British ISIL recruiter known as the White Widow and her 12-year-old son are believed to have been killed in a CIA operation after President Donald Trump relaxed restrictions on the U.S. spy agency’s drone strikes.
Sally-Anne Jones reportedly died close to the border between Syria and Iraq, in a strike thought to have also killed her son, Jojo Dixon.
The punk rock singer-turned-jihadist became Britain’s most wanted woman after fleeing to Syria from the U.K., in 2013 to marry computer hacker Junaid Hussain, an ISIL fighter from Birmingham. Jones became a prolific online recruiter and is believed to have attracted dozens of female recruits via social media.
A defence source said the strike had been carried out by the CIA, which runs its own fleet of Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles.
Trump ramped up the CIA’s strike program soon after taking office, allowing the agency more freedom to carry out strikes and hinting he may relax rules of engagement designed to protect civilians.
The British government is not believed to have been consulted over the strike in June and there was no U.K. military involvement.
Jojo was reportedly used as a human shield by his mother and stepfather to protect them from military drone strikes. A photograph taken in Raqqa in 2016 showed the boy wearing the uniform of the “cubs of the caliphate,” the clothing worn by ISIL’s child soldiers.
Hussain was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike in August 2015. Hussain had hacked into a U.S. government computer and posted online the names and addresses of 1,300 military and government employees and urged ISIL followers in the U.S. to “behead them.”