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 Foreign Office.
The
masked ‘executioner’ with a London 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.
The US Air Force attacked a bunker where Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and Jihadi John were meeting in Iraq
‘We
are aware of reports that this individual [Jihadi John] has been
injured, and we are looking into them,’ a Foreign Office spokesman told
The Mail on Sunday.
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 Foreign Office 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.’
The
Foreign Office also issued an official statement saying: ‘We are aware
of reports. We cannot 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 ten IS commanders dead, and around 40 injured.
Those reportedly hurt included IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
But until now, Jihadi John’s presence at the meeting has not emerged.
It is also not known whether Jihadi John 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 IS figure in his own right, who goes by
the nomme de guerre Jalman Al-Britani, was also present.
Sources claim that Jihadi John,
pictured, was injured and rushed to hospital following the surgical
airstrike in Iraq which killed ten ISIS commanders, the killer, who has a
London accent, murdered Steven Sotloff
Jihadi John was also responsible for the murder of British aid worker Alan Henning, left
According
to our source, a nurse who treated the wounded in a hospital in
Deir-ez-Zour, confirmed that one of the names on the injured list was
Jalman, saying it was ‘the one who slaughtered the journalists’.
It
is not clear how seriously the British fanatic was hurt, but the source
said that both he and Al-Baghdadi were rushed to the Al Qaim General
Hospital for treatment.
IS
members issued urgent calls through the local mosque’s loudspeakers,
appealing for the town’s residents to donate blood at the hospital.
Our
source, who does not want to be identified for his own safety, added
that Jihadi John, Al-Baghdadi and the other wounded IS personnel were
then driven to Syria, and travelling 200 miles north along the Euphrates
valley to the IS stronghold of Raqqa.
The
injured were taken to two captured Syrian army barracks near the city
in the hope that underground medical facilities there would provide
protection against further air strikes.
The
source said that hospitals in Raqqa and nearby Deir-ez-Zour 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, right, became one of the world's most wanted terrorists after he murdered James Foley, left
Jihadi John, who also murdered David Haines, left, is believed to live in the Syrian town of Al Bukamal
Jihadi
John has become one of the world’s most hunted terrorists after
beheading British aid workers David Haines, 44, from Perth, and Alan
Henning, 47, from Manchester; and American journalists James Foley, 40,
and Steven Sotloff, 31. Footage of the atrocities has been 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 IS.
Our
source, who has contacts with the IS leadership in Syria, also throws
fresh light on the role played by Jihadi John within the terrorist
group.
Unlike
most other western Muslim recruits, he has risen to a position of some
seniority. Normally, Western fighters occupy lowly positions, mainly
being used as foot soldiers or performing guard duty. Although believed
to formerly have been a prison guard for IS, Jihadi John was made a
member of a shura council, or governing body, of an IS ‘wilayat’, or
province.
IS
is now controlling large areas of Syria and Iraq, which it has declared
an Islamic caliphate. Jihadi John is understood to be in the shura
council for the wilayat of Al Furat, an area that straddles the
Syria-Iraq border and includes Al Qaim, the scene of the air strike.
Our source added that Jihadi John does not live in Raqqa, but in Al Bukamal, a small desert town which borders Iraq.
He
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 when he left the UK, but then moved to Syria.
The raid is believed to have injured the leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, pictured
The
source said that Jihadi John usually travels in a black Audi jeep, and
he has six other British terrorists with him who act as his bodyguards.
In the confusion following the bombing last weekend, rumours swiftly spread that IS leader Al-Baghdadi had been killed.
Last
week, in order to scotch those rumours, he issued a 17-minute audio
recording, exhorting extremists to ‘erupt volcanoes of jihad
everywhere’.
The
Mail on Sunday has obtained an Iraqi intelligence document from the
Federal Intelligence and Investigation unit of the Ministry of Interior,
which outlines last Saturday’s attack.
The
document said that Al-Baghdadi was wearing black and first went to a
kindergarten building before going to have lunch at an IS leader’s
house. It is believed that the air strikes took place when he was
meeting the other leaders in a bunker beneath that property.
It is understood that Jihadi John has been moved to the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, pictured
Muhammad
Nasser Delli, an MP for Anbar province, told The Mail on Sunday that
local residents confirmed to him that they saw Al-Baghdadi being treated
at Al Qaim.
He
said: ‘A number of people saw him there, but he did not stay at the
hospital long. There were lots of women and children that were killed on
Saturday during the air strikes.’
The Iraqi intelligence paper also states that Al-Baghdadi was taken to Al Qaim hospital, before being driven to Syria.
It lists 16 IS leaders as having been killed in the attack, and nine injured.
Among
the dead are Abu Huzaifa Al-Adnany, a security guard to Al-Baghdadi,
and Abu Quatayba, the cleric of Al Furat wilaya, who would sit in the
same shura council as Jihadi John.
Also dead is a prominent IS fighter from Chechnya called Abu Abdul Rahman Al-Shishani, says the document.
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