British Islamic State member 'White Widow' killed in airstrike with 12-year-old son in Syria

London: A British member of the Islamic State terrorist network, dubbed as the “White Widow” by UK media, has been killed along with her minor son in a US drone strike in Syria, media reports said on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_3407966” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] Sally Jones, known for a her prolific pro-Islamic State propaganda on social media and often described as the world’s most wanted terrorist, is believed to have been killed along with her 12-year-old son Jojo. The 50-year-old was a punk rocker from the county of Kent in England before she converted to Islam and went on to become one of the most notorious recruiters for Islamic State. “The premise that Sally Jones and her son are dead is probably accurate,” a UK government source was quoted as saying by The Times. Jones’ husband, 21-year-old Junaid Hussain who was a computer hacker from Birmingham and also an Islamic State member, was killed in a drone strike in the terrorist group’s former stronghold of Raqqa, northern Syria, in August 2015. British intelligence had assisted in that operation. MI6 spies were reportedly tracking the movements of Jones, who travelled with Jojo to Syria in 2013 to marry Hussain. The husband and wife were since on a US “kill list” of high-value targets. Jones’ death brings to at least six the number of known British Islamic State terrorists to have been killed in drone strikes in Syria. The true number is likely to be higher as it is often difficult to verify the identity of jihadists killed from the air. According to The Sun newspaper, a US Air Force Predator drone was used to kill Jones, who had adopted the Islamic nom de guerre of Umm Hussain al-Britani. She had been attempting to flee Raqqa as it came under increased bombardment from the US, British and other coalition aircraft as well as American-backed local forces on the ground in the long-running campaign against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Jones grew in notoriety during her four years in the war zone of Syria. She attempted to brainwash young girls to travel to Syria to become jihadist brides and also took to social media to threaten attacks on Britain. Her husband ran a hacking unit for Islamic State. Jones also allowed son Jojo to take part in a propaganda video in which he was seen shooting a hostage in the back of the head alongside other young boys. Other high-profile British jihadists killed in drone strikes include Mohammed Emwazi, dubbed Jihadi John, who beheaded a number of western hostages on video. He died in a joint US-British operation in November 2015.