A hit on Jihadi John

British terrorist hit in air strike on ISIS high command meeting

JIHADI JOHN, the Briton who beheaded two British and two American hostages held by Islamic State terrorists, has been injured in a US-led air-strike, according to reports received by the British Foreign Office.

The masked ‘executioner’ with a British accent is believed to have narrowly escaped death when he attended a summit of the group’s leaders in an Iraqi town close to the Syrian border last Saturday. The meeting was targeted by American and Iraqi jets. ‘We are aware of reports that this individual [Jihadi John] has been injured, and we are looking into them,’ a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

This newspaper has received an independent account of how Jihadi John was injured and rushed to hospital after a devastating air strike in al-Qaim, in Anbar Province, Western Iraq.

The spokesman added: ‘We have a number of sources of information

coming in. The incident occurred last weekend, and so we have received the reports in the last few days. We don’t have any representation inside Syria, and so it is difficult to confirm these reports.’ A spokesman for US Central Command said they were unable to confirm the details for security reasons. The joint US-Iraqi mission left at least 10 IS commanders dead, and around 40 injured. Those reportedly hurt included ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

But until now, Jihadi John’s presence at the meeting has not emerged. It is also not known whether he was intentionally targeted or merely happened to be present.

The secret, heavily guarded meeting took place last Saturday in a makeshift underground bunker beneath a house in al-Qaim. At least 30 tribal elders from various parts of Syria and Iraq gathered to pledge allegiance to al-Baghdadi, according to our well-placed Syrian source. He said Jihadi John, as a senior ISIS figure in his own right, who goes by the nomme de guerre Jalman al-Britani, was also present.

According to our source, a male nurse who treated the wounded confirmed to him that one of the names on the injured list was Jalman, and confirmed in Arabic it was ‘the one who slaughtered the journalists’.

It is not clear how seriously the fanatic was hurt, but the source said that both he and al-Baghdadi were rushed to the al-Qaim General Hospital for treatment.

ISIS members issued urgent calls through the local mosque’s loudspeakers, appealing for residents to donate blood.

Our source, who does not want to be identified for his own safety, added that Jihadi John, al-Baghdadi and the other wounded ISIS personnel were

It was the one who slaughtered journalists

then driven to Syria, and travelled 200 miles north along the Euphrates valley to the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

The source said that hospitals in Raqqa and nearby Deir-ez-Zor were ordered to take their medical supplies and staff to the secure bases, once the HQs of the Assad regime’s 17th Division and 93rd Brigade.

Jihadi John has become one of the world’s most hunted terrorists after beheading British aid workers David Haines, 44, and Alan Henning, 47, and American journalists James Foley, 40, and Steven Sotloff, 31. Footage of the atrocities was released online, and in the most recent gruesome execution video of Mr Henning, put out last month, the murderer threatened to behead another US hostage, Peter Kassig, 26, an aid worker.

British journalist John Cantlie, also held hostage, has been forced to appear in a series of internet propaganda videos for ISIS.

Our source, who has contacts with the ISIS leadership in Syria, also throws fresh light on the role played by Jihadi John in ISIS.

Unlike most other western Muslim recruits, he has risen to a position of some seniority. He is understood to be in the shura council (a governing body) for the wilayat (province) of Al Furat, an area that straddles the Syria-Iraq border and includes al-Qaim.

Jihadi John is aged between 28 and 31, and is fluent in English, Arabic and classical Arabic, the language of the Koran, according to our source. He first joined IS in Iraq but then moved to Syria. He usually travels in a black Audi jeep, and has six other British terrorists who act as his bodyguards.