In a statement, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook confirmed that a U.S. military airstrike in Raqqa, Syria, on Thursday targeted the 27-year-old Mohamed Emwazi, a British national born in Kuwait and raised in London, also known as the ISIS executioner “Jihadi John.”

The Pentagon does not yet know whether Emwazi was killed in the strike. “We are assessing the results of tonight’s operation and will provide additional information as and where appropriate,” Cook’s statement reads

“Emwazi, a British citizen, participated in the videos showing the murders of U.S. journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, and a number of other hostages.”

From the Washington Post:

Former Islamic State hostages have described Emwazi, one of a number of English-speaking captors dubbed ‘the Beatles’ due to the British accents, as a vicious captor who participated in the waterboarding and beating of hostages.

An official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive operation, said that the gathering that was targeted in Thursday’s strike may have included another of the s0-called Beatles. The Washington Post first identified Emwazi early this year, but the identities of the other British militants have not become public.

An anonymous U.S. official told the Associated Press that a drone targeted a vehicle believed to be carrying Emwazi.

The mother of Emwazi’s first victim, James Foley, told ABC News that the ISIS executioner’s death would be “really a small solace to us.”

“This huge effort to go after the this deranged man filled with hate when they can’t make half that effort to save the hostages while these young Americans were still alive,” Diane Foley said.

Image via Washington Post. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.