US officials say they are in the final stages of confirming the death of a British computer hacker allegedly killed in a drone strike in Syria.
Junaid Hussain from Birmingham has been described as a key operator for so-called Islamic State allegedly involved in targeting new recruits for the organisation.
The 21-year-old was said last month to have been number three on the Pentagon’s “kill list” of IS targets and is thought to have fled Britain to travel to Syria in 2013, reports Sky News.
A US official was quoted as saying they have a “high level of confidence” he has been killed.
A strike specifically targeted Hussain while he was travelling in a vehicle in Syria, sources were said to have told CNN.
In an exclusive report Sky News went undercover and contacted Hussain and his jihadi wife using anonymous online messaging services.
Sending us detailed guidebooks, they urged our fictional characters to form gangs and to create a British Islamic State over a long period.
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.
“They think they can kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan then come back to the UK and be safe. We’ll hit them hard InshAllah.”
Claims of Hussain’s death have yet to be confirmed by British authorities.
In 2012 he was jailed for six months after making hoax calls to a counter-terror hotline.
He also admitted publishing Tony Blair’s address book the year before and was a member of TeaMpOisoN, a group which claimed responsibility for 1,400 hacking offences.
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