Faced with new ISIS threat, Israel readies itself for possible confrontation
“Jihadi John” the nom de guerre of Mohammed Emwazi, the executioner featured in the ghastly beheading videos of James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto is dead.
Emwazi was memorialized in a glowing obituary published this week in Islamic State’s English-language magazine Dabiq confirming claims made two months ago by the Americans that the Kuwaiti- born Englishman was taken out two months ago in airstrikes on Al-Raqqa, the “caliphate’s” capital in northeast Syria.
Emwazi’s removal is a key element of a series of key blows against Islamic State (ISIS) which began nearly a year ago when the organization lost the city of Kobani, a Syrian town on set directly on Turkish border .
The early IS stronghold Ramadi was taken back by the Iraqi army two weeks ago.
“Much of this year was setting the conditions to effectively contain and then start pushing back against Daesh [another name for ISIS] in Iraq and Syria,” said General John Allen, formerly President Obama’s point man on ISIS.