A U.S. airstrike reportedly killed Junaid Hussain, a British hacker who became a top cyber expert for the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), according to officials speaking with The Guardian on Wednesday.
Hussain, also known as Abu Hussain al-Britani, was born in Birmingham, England; the 21-year-old reportedly traveled to Syria in 2013. Western officials believed he was a key figure within the ISIS group Cyber Caliphate, which hacked into the Pentagon’s Twitter and YouTube accounts in January, sending pro-ISIS messages for a short time.
Hussain was married to Sally Jones, a 44-year-old English rocker who converted to Islam. She met the jihadi fighter online and left the UK with her son to join him in Syria.
The White House has not officially announced Hussain’s death. If confirmed, it would be the second time in eight days that a U.S. airstrike has reportedly killed a senior member of ISIS; on Aug. 18 Fadhil Ahmad al-Hayali, ISIS’s second-in-command was killed near Mosul, Iraq.
- What We Know So Far About the Deadly Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria
- Beyoncé's Album of the Year Snub Fits Into the Grammys' Long History of Overlooking Black Women
- How the U.S. Shot Down the Alleged Chinese Spy Balloon
- Effective Altruism Has a Toxic Culture of Sexual Harassment and Abuse, Women Say
- Inside Bolsonaro's Surreal New Life as a Florida Man—and MAGA Darling
- 'Return to Office' Plans Spell Trouble for Working Moms
- 8 Ways to Read More Books—and Why You Should
- Why Aren't Movies Sexy Anymore?
- How Logan Paul's Crypto Empire Fell Apart
