How we finally finished him off
FOR obvious security reasons, neither the Ministry of Defence nor the Pentagon have revealed precisely how Jihadi John was tracked down and killed. But it is possible to assemble the likely sequence of events by drawing on intelligence sources, the scant details we have been given – and from the experience of previous drone strikes.
After the sinister masked figure was first seen on YouTube in August last year, British and US intelligence services were straight on his trail, helped by voice-tagging technology.
The technology meant that staff at the Government’s GCHQ spy agency in Cheltenham could analyse voice-recordings collected by Nimrod spy planes. They can create individual voice profiles of terrorists, in the same way as police use fingerprints.
Confirmation that Jihadi John had been found was finally made by ‘other means’ – most likely an informant. Next, in intelligence jargon, came ‘Find – Fix – Finish’. As well as using CIA and MI6 spies in Syria, it is believed heavily-disguised special forces, such as the SAS, will have infiltrated Islamic State strongthen holds including Raqqa. Such ground-level intelligence is known as ‘humint’, short for human intelligence, but electronic intelligence or ‘elint’ is a far more powerful weapon. This includes the interception of suspects’ mobile phone calls through the use of drones, spy planes and satellites.
Staff at the UK military intelligence base at Ayios Nikolaos, Cyprus, can also sweep up complex communications ‘chatter’.
Terrorist targets will try to keep one step ahead of pursuers: they may not use mobile phones as SIM cards can be tracked, neither will they connect to the internet in a bid to prevent UK and US watchers following their IP address, automatically recognised by servers.
Instead they use encrypted instant messages – although it is believed GCHQ can decode these, too. But, however it happened, Jihadi John was located in June. He would have been constantly followed by unmanned drones operated by crew at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, or US pilots at Creech Air Force Base near Las Vegas.
For weeks, drone pilots will ‘fix’ intimate knowledge of a target to establish their routine and identify a location where they can be taken out with little or no collateral damage.
The fliers, as well as being able to launch drones carrying Hellfire missiles, also have legal clearance to kill high-value targets – since approval to strike cannot always be obtained from David Cameron or President Obama at a moment’s notice.
Jihadi John was watched in August as he travelled in a convoy which included women and children; in such circumstances, a drone strike would not have been wise. This week, he was tracked to Raqqa by GCHQ which picked up chatter among IS militants. Drones circling above would then have been despatched to find his exact location by picking up his voice.
With such a high-profile target, it is likely the British and US governments wanted ‘eyes-on’ confirmation. Once established, his location would have been passed to the US pilots at Creech – for the Finish.
Throughout Thursday, Jihadi John was watched by drones 50,000ft above as operators waited until they could kill him ‘safely’.
At 11.40pm he was seen emerging from a building in central Raqqa and getting into a car with three more IS terrorists.
At that point, one pilot would have clicked a mouse or control stick trigger to ‘paint’ the target vehicle with a laser, which is used by Hellfire missiles to lock on the target. Then, with either a keyboard command or another click of a mouse, transmitted via satellite, the Hellfire would have been launched.
The next 20 seconds would have been tense, as the US pilots waited for it to strike...
Success! The car was struck – with some poetic justice, near an Islamic court and the clock tower location of IS crucifixions.
The explosion would not have been the end of the mission for the drone’s operators who had to keep the craft circling above Raqqa, to check the target was ‘Finished’. It is understood they watched Jihadi John being taken to hospital, where he is thought to have died.
The last word goes to a Pentagon official, who said clinically: ‘We know for a fact that the weapons system hit the intended target and that the personnel on the receiving end were killed by that.’