The United States has carried out an airstrike in Syria targeting Islamic State militant Mohammed Emwazi, the British citizen also referred to as “Jihadi John”. He is believed to responsible for multiple beheadings of American, British and Japanese hostages in the group’s propaganda videos. The Pentagon said in a statement it was still working on Thursday night to establish whether Emwazi had been killed.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said, “US forces conducted an airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, on 12 November 2015 targeting Mohamed Emwazi, also known as Jihadi John. Emwazi, a British citizen, participated in the videos showing the murders of US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, US aid worker Abdul-Rahman [Peter] Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, and a number of other hostages.”

The Associated Press quoted a US official saying that a drone had targeted a vehicle believed to be carrying Emwazi.