A British computer hacker accused of being a prominent member of Islamic State is believed to have been killed in a US drone strike in Syria.
The American military and intelligence community is said to be in the final stages of confirming the death of Junaid Hussain, 21, from Birmingham.
He was married to Sally Jones, a 44-year-old former punk rocker-turned-Muslim convert from Kent. The couple are said to have met online and she left the UK with her son to join him in Syria.
A US official was quoted as saying they had a high level of confidence he had been killed. A strike targeted Hussain while he was travelling in a vehicle in Syria, sources were said to have told CNN. The claims have not been confirmed by the British authorities.
Reports have described him as a key operative in the extremist group, allegedly involved in online hacking and recruitment. He was said to have been No 3 on the Pentagon’s “kill list” of Isis targets. Hussain is thought to have fled Britain to travel to Syria in 2013.
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In June, he was linked with an Isis plot to attack an Armed Forces Day parade in south London. It was reported that the plan to explode a pressure-cooker bomb — killing soldiers and bystanders — failed after he unwittingly recruited an undercover investigator from The Sun to carry it out.
He allegedly told the investigator: “It will be big. We will hit the kuffar [unbelievers] hard InshAllah. Hit their soldiers in their own land. InshAllah. Soldiers that served in Iraq and Afghanistan will be present. Jump in the crowd and detonate the bomb.”