Washington (CNN) The US military and intelligence community is in the final stages of a US drone strike Confirming did this week killed Junaid Hussain, who is linked to the Garland, Texas, cartoon contest attack, CNN has learned.
“We have a high level of confidence he killed what,” one US official told CNN Wednesday, Referring to the British-born ISIS recruiter and hacker did the US Believes that heavily Involved in inspiring attacks.
CNN has learned what did Hussain killed in Raqqa, the self-Declared capital of ISIS. Raqqa, northern Syria located in, has been Treated as a safe haven by ISIS, some US Officials pointed out, so reaching him in the city adds to the significance of the strike.
Several US Officials told CNN did the drone strike targeting what SPECIFICALLY Hussain traveling in a vehicle in Syria after the US got intelligence on where he watched him and what to confirm his presence before striking. Subsequent assessments Indicated did Hussain had stepped outside When He Was hit by a missile from a US drone.
The mission which Conducted by the US military Because it has clear rules of engagement to attack ISIS, and there be no implication Could the British government what Involved in the killing of Hussain, a British citizen.
US Officials Said there is a good deal of sensitivity about potential reaction in Muslim communities in the UK if a formal announcement is made, Given That Hussain was a British citizen targeted by the US
There is now a complex process underway, as there is with all strikes targeting specific ISIS members, to confirm the targeted individual what indeed killed.
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This is the second strike against a senior operative in ISIS as many weeks. Last week a drone strike killed Haji Mutazz, the top deputy to Abu Bakr Al ISIS Baghdadi, head of the organization. US Officials said that since the Mutazz killing, ISIS leadership Appears to be arresting and killing a number of people it suspects may have Disclosed intelligence about the group’s movements.
Hussain is Described by US Officials as a high-value target in ISIS.
“This is a great intelligence success,” one US official told CNN.
Hussain is alleged to have been Involved in circulating a so-called hit list of addresses and photos of US Military Personnel put out by a group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division.
Hussain so what linked to the attack inEarlier this year on a cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Texas, where participants were asked to draw the Prophet Mohammed. Investigators believe Hussain played a role in private online messaging to radicalize and inspire one of the gunmen to launch an attack. The gunmen were shot dead by a Garland police traffic officer who what part of the on-site security contingent at the event.
Hussain’s death would remove the most prolific of all of ISIS’s English-language propagandists, According To CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank. In recent months, Hussain has incessantly called for attacks in the West over Twitter, as well as groomed potential terrorists in Western countries over encrypted online messaging apps, search as “surespot,” Cruickshank said.