adminTHREE senior members of ISIS have been killed in a US airstrike in northern Iraq, according to senior security officials. Two days after a video showing the execution of US journalist Steven Sotloff was released, US warplanes struck at the heart of ISIS in Mosul, northern Iraq, killing the wanted jihadist Abu Hajar Al-Sufi — the right hand man to terror chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
At the Nato summit in Wales yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry was seen to quietly pass President Obama a note while David Cameron was speaking shortly after members of the press were cleared from the conference hall.
The revelation came after Cameron pledged that the militant threatening to murder British aid worker David Haines would ‘face justice’. He also urged Nato countries join the UK and America in putting a ‘fatal squeeze’ on ISIS.
It has not been confirmed if Obama learned of Al-Sufi’s death through Kerry’s note, but the President was noticeably absent for the beginning of a meeting of the Nato-Ukraine commission in the early evening at the summit.
A senior Iraqi security official confirmed the news of the deadly air strike to NBC News and is the most significant blow against ISIS since the United States began air strikes last month.
Al Arabiya quoted the Iraqi Defence Ministry to say Baghdadi’s aide, an explosives expert and the military leader of the nearby town of Tel Afar also lost their lives in the raid. The confirmation of the deadly strike demonstrates that the US is clearly targeting ISIS’ leadership and clarifies rumours circulating yesterday that al-Baghdadi himself was killed in the raid.
Indeed, multiple sources, including former Iraqi army officers, told the Daily Beast on Wednesday that al-Baghdadi had died in Syria after being seriously injured in an Iraqi or American airstrike in the north of Iraq. The strike against the terror groups leadership came as Western leaders at the summit ramped up their rhetoric against ISIS.
As Nato leaders gathered in Wales for a two-day summit, Cameron set his sights on the British terrorist — dubbed ‘Jihadi John’ — who has killed two American journalists on video and has threatened to murder British aid worker David Haines.
He hinted British intelligence services are in touch with the kidnappers but ruled out paying a ransom, as a new poll showed 47 per cent of voters want him to order air strikes.
However, the Prime Minister’s insistence of the involvement of the new Iraqi government suggests any action could yet be weeks away. It emerged today that Conservative MPs are being canvassed over the possibility of military action against ISIS in Iraq.
Cameron presented a united front with US President Barack Obama yesterday, as they prepared the ground for multi-national air strikes against ISIS and for sending troops to from a Nato training force in Iraq.
But the new Iraqi government is not due to be in place until September 11, meaning an official request for help could be more than a week away.
There is growing public pressure for military intervention in Iraq, and direct action against Haines’ captors.
Challenged about whether the murderous militants will ever be caught, Cameron told BBC Radio 5Live: “The people who do this should know that one way or another they will face justice. I’m absolutely certain that will be the case with this individual as well.”
In two videos posted online showing the murders of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, their captor appeared with his face covered but spoke with a British accent.
Lord West, a former Navy chief and ex-security minister, described Jihadi John as a ‘dead man walking’.
Cameron and Obama insist they will not weaken in the face of threats from ISIS terrorists and warn that democratic nations could not afford to be intimidated in the face of terrorist threats.
In a joint article in The Times yesterday, the prime minister and the President Obama vowed ‘we will not waver in our determination to confront ISIL’.
“If terrorists think we will weaken in the face of their threats they could not be more wrong,” they said.
“Countries like Britain and America will not be cowed by barbaric killers. We will be more forthright in the defence of our values, not least because a world of greater freedom is a fundamental part of how we keep our own people safe.”
They added: ‘Those who believe in stepping back and adopting an isolationist approach misunderstand the nature of security in the 21st century.
“Developments in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq and Syria threaten our security at home. And Nato is not just an alliance of friends who come to the aid of each other in times of need, it is also an alliance based on national self-interest.
“Whether it is regional aggression going unchecked or the prospect that foreign fighters could return from Iraq and Syria to pose a threat in our countries, the problems we face today threaten the security of British and American people, and the wider world. “
Cameron added: “Let’s be clear about the scale of the problem. We have something like 500 British people who have travelled to Syria and Iraq to take part in these horrors.”
He insisted the government had already taken action to deal with the threats.
“We have confiscated people’s passports, Syria-related arrests are up five-fold over the last year.
“We have prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned tens, hundreds of people over the last five years for extremism, for terrorism and we will continue to do that.”
Cameron insisted there must be a multi-national effort to crush the jihadist forces. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We face a threat from this organisation. We need to take every action we can domestically and then work with partners to put a fatal squeeze on this organisation.”
He stressed that Britain was already working to support the Kurds on the ground in Iraq, and just last night a British Hercules plane landed in Irbil to provide vital body armour for those forces.
But he refused to rule out Britain joining the US in launching missile attacks on ISIS bases.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I’m certainly not ruling anything out and I will always act in the British national interest. What I would say, though, is this — I think it is very important that Western intervention isn’t over the heads of those locally trying to fight this organisation and isn’t done against the wishes and against the work of regional partners. That is sometimes the mistake that has been made in the past.” Outside the high-security ring of skill, hundreds of protesters joined a march against the summit. Around 500 people marched from the Cenotaph in the city centre towards the Celtic Manor venue, where the world leaders are meeting.
Along the three mile route many members of the public watched and took pictures and videos on their mobile phones as the protesters walked past.
Among the anti-Nato campaigners were members of the Socialist Party, Socialist Worker Party, Stop the War Coalition and the Red Block, a communist group, who were dressed in black wearing masks. — Dailymail.
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