By Greg Botelho and Barbara Starr, CNN

Updated 4:24 PM ET, Fri November 13, 2015





(CNN) He hid his face, but "Jihadi John" was the English-speaking voice of ISIS. His twisted, videotaped taunts and acts of terrible cruelty -- beheading hostages who had gone to the Middle East to report stories and help others -- symbolized the Islamist militant group's depravity and ruthlessness.

Not anymore, it appears.

U.S. Army Col. Steven Warren said Friday that a drone strike the previous night killed everyone in the targeted vehicle, with Mohammed Emwazi -- a.k.a. "Jihadi John" -- likely among them.

"We are reasonably certain that we killed the target that we intended to kill, which is Jihadi John," the Army spokesman said. "...This guy was a human animal, and killing him is probably making the world a little bit better place."

The United States had been tracking Emwazi closely since Wednesday, and he was seen leaving a building and getting into a car Thursday, U.S. officials said. Three drones went after that vehicle, which also had another person inside, and two Hellfire missiles were fired.

Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently, a Syrian activist group, said a missile hit Emwazi's car directly at 11:51 p.m. (4:51 p.m. ET) in front of an ISIS court in Raqqa. Citing a source in ISIS' de facto capital, the same group said that ISIS militants then ringed that vehicle and two others that had been struck to prevent anyone from getting closer.

Speaking hours later Friday, British Prime Minister David Cameron cast the airstrike as an act of self-defense that, if it is confirmed Emwazi is dead, "will strike at the heart of ISIS."

"We always said we will do whatever is necessary to track down Emwazi and stop him taking the lives of others," he said.

But there is no joy or sense of victory from Louise Woodward-Styles. Her friend, British aid worker David Haines, was among the hostages whose beheading videos featured Emwazi. Others included American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid worker David Haines and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

'Jihadi John' victims: Journalists, aid workers making a difference

"There's just sadness," Woodward-Styles said. "It reminds you of the loss of Alan and just hoping it's closure for the family. But also I hope it reminds people that the issue of Syria is still ongoing, and not to forget the reasons why Alan was there."

As to Emwazi himself, Woodward-Styles added, "I don't think he deserves the attention that his apparent death is causing. I think he was a coward."

Justice for 'victims of this evil man'
As the masked face of ISIS, the British citizen appeared in a series of brutal videos, dressed head-to-toe in black -- his eyes and voice his lone revealing features -- and holding a knife.



The Ramadhan Foundation, a Muslim organization in the UK, called Emwazi the manifestation of evil.

"The killing of Mohammed Emwazi in Syria is a significant moment in the fight to get justice for David Haines, Alan Henning and all the victims of this evil man," said Mohammed Shafiq, the group's executive director.

Who is 'Jihadi John'?

That sentiment wasn't shared by CAGE, the London-based civil rights group that had contact with Emwazi. The group stated "its opposition to extrajudicial killing of any kind," adding that "state-sponsored targeted assassinations undercut the judicial processes that provide the lessons by which spirals of violence can be stopped."

Rather than be killed, CAGE said, Emwazi should have been tried as a war criminal. Because that won't happen, the world will never know what spurred him -- and many others in the West and beyond -- to join ISIS.