
The British jihadist who became known as the White Widow has been killed in a US drone strike while attempting to flee the ISIS capital, it emerged last night.

Onetime punk rocker Sally Jones, from Kent, fled to Syria with her son in 2013 before becoming a recruiter for the ISIS terror group.

She was killed by a Predator missile near the border of Iraq and Syria four months ago as she tried to flee the group's stronghold in Raqqa, it is understood.

The onetime punk rocker from Kent went to Syria with her son in 2013. A former L'Oreal saleswoman, she lived in a council house in Chatham before fleeing to Syria in 2013, after falling for hacker jihadi Junaid Hussain online. Now she has reportedly been 'zapped' by an American drone. Pictured: A composite image of Jones, which first appeared on her Twitter account, showing her dressed as a nun while pointing a gun at the camera and holding a dog – a direct copy of the front cover of the novel Divorcing Jack

Jones was a high priority on the Pentagon's 'kill list' because she was believed to have masterminded dozens of terror plots. Pictured: The propagandist with her son JoJo

According to the report, the CIA told the Government in June that the 50-year-old had been killed by a Predator drone that same month. Pictured: How the terrorist was killed in Syria

It was feared 12-year-old JoJo was being used as a human shield and was also killed in the strike.

Jones, 50, a grandmother from Chatham in Kent, was considered Britain's most wanted woman and was a recruiter and propagandist for ISIS.

A Whitehall source told how she was 'zapped' as she tried to get away from Raqqa.

She was believed to have been heading toward the Syrian border settlement of Mayadin as the ISIS capital is besieged by coalition forces.

British commanders were informed of the hit by the US but it is understood they did not disclose what happened in June in case her son had been killed.

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She was believed to have been heading toward the Syrian border settlement of Mayadin as the ISIS capital is besieged by coalition forces. In the early 1990s she was the lead guitarist in an all-girl rock band called Krunch who played a series of gigs in the South East

Considered Britain's most-wanted woman, Jones - known as the White Widow - was a recruiter for Islamic State

After her husband's death, it was thought she received a monthly salary from ISIS of £520, plus a bonus of more than £200 every couple of months for being the widow of a 'shahid' or martyr. Pictured left: Jones with baby Joe in 2004

Sources said the strike would have been abandoned if it was known the boy, who is not deemed a combatant, would be killed.

It remains unclear if he survived the hit.

The pilot of the drone was controlling the aircraft remotely in the US and it is not known if Jones was in a vehicle or a building when she was targeted.

Jones was a high priority on the Pentagon's 'kill list' because she was believed to have masterminded dozens of terror plots.

She was believed to be the leader of the secret Anwar al-Awlaki battalion's female wing. She was said to be responsible for training European female terror recruits.

The Muslim convert fled Britain to join ISIS back in 2013 alongside toyboy lover and jihadi hacker Junaid Hussain, taking her then-nine-year-old son JoJo with her.

The 12-year-old boy, now named Hamza, is believed to have been forced to execute prisoners during his time there after being brainwashed by jihadis. A nine-minute ISIS video issued last year appeared to show the boy executing a captured prisoner in a firing squad.

Jones' husband Hussain - who was leader of the ISIS 'digi-jihad' computer hacking brigade, was killed in 2015 aged 21 in a US drone strike.

After her lover's death, it was thought she received a monthly salary from ISIS of £520, plus a bonus of more than £200 every couple of months for being the widow of a 'shahid' or martyr.

She is believed to be the sixth Briton killed by drones in Syria, following the likes of Mohammed Emwazi known as 'Jihadi John'.

Others killed by drones include Ruhul Amin, from Aberdeen, and Reyaad Khan, from Cardiff, as coalition forces conducted over 500 airstrikes over the summer.

The Muslim convert fled Britain to join ISIS back in 2013 alongside toyboy lover Junaid Hussain (pictured), taking her then-nine-year-old son JoJo with her

It was previously claimed Jones was using her son as human shield in an attempt to stop the US from carrying out a similar strike on her

Last year JoJo's father, who asked not to be named, said his son appeared in an ISIS video showing young boys murdering men in orange jumpsuits.

The man said: 'He was brilliant, just a normal boy – always chasing bugs, going down the park. I have had to block it out. It's been hard, we just have to carry on. It's disgusting he's been brainwashed.'

While in Raqqa, JoJo was believed to have been brainwashed by IS and taught lessons in martial arts training, firearms and radical Islam.

His name was changed to Hamza and he was forced to call Hussain, his mother's husband, 'dad'.

The boy, also known as Joe, had apparently told his grandmother he was concerned his mother was planning to take him out of the country.

JoJo appeared in an ISIS video showing young boys murdering men in orange jumpsuits

The man, who asked not to be named to protect his safety, said: 'He was brilliant, just a normal boy – always chasing bugs, going down the park. I have had to block it out. It's been hard, we just have to carry on. It's disgusting he's been brainwashed'

'He was having difficulty sleeping,' said a family friend last year.

'The grandmother discovered that the thing that was worrying him was that his mother was planning a trip.'

When challenged, Jones insisted he had made a mistake and they were merely going on holiday to Turkey.

Friends and relatives spoke of their utter grief at being separated from Joe when he vanished with Jones and the trauma of discovering what he was forced into doing.

They told how the little boy once called them from Syria, but was prevented from speaking freely by his mother who stood beside him.

They spoke under condition of anonymity for fear, not only of what Jones and her ISIS cohorts might do to them, but of reprisals closer to home from extreme right-wing nationalists.

'I felt sick to the stomach,' his grandmother told a friend after seeing the barbaric images of her grinning grandson moments before he shot the prisoner in the back of the head.

The making of the 'White Widow' who was a former punk beautician Sally Jones was a former punk rocker who became one of the most high-profile figures in the Islamic State terror group. A former L'Oreal saleswoman, she lived in a council house in Chatham before fleeing to Syria in 2013, after falling for hacker jihadi Junaid Hussain online. Born in South-East London, she was the only daughter of a greengrocer turned lorry driver and her older brother runs a business in the Home Counties. Jones was still a girl when her parents divorced and was 10 years old when her father committed suicide after taking an overdose. She was raised as a Catholic and attended Christian youth groups in her teens and early twenties. She left school at the age of 16 to work as a beautician and later became interested in punk music, joining the all-girl band Krunch, for which she played bass guitar. However her music career was put on hold when she fell pregnant with her on-off boyfriend, labourer Jonathan Wilkinson. But two years after their son was born in 1996, 29-year-old Wilkinson died from liver cirrhosis. Her eldest son Jonathan, now 21, from Kent, become a father in September 2014. A chaotic and self-destructive lifestyle that ensued led her to an online dating site, where she first met Hussain, whose mother was a Birmingham school dinner lady. Then a mother-of-two, Jones fled to the Middle East in 2013 with Hussain and her younger boy JoJo, now 12, leaving her elder son behind. The former benefits claimant went on to be put in charge of the female wing of an IS battalion of foreign fighters. Her and her husband became notorious for their involvement in ISIS and were nicknamed 'Mr and Mrs Terror'. The pair were accused of plotting terror attacks across three continents and were even linked to a plot to blow up the Queen and Prince Philip during VJ celebrations two years ago. Jones became known as the White Widow after Hussain was killed in a drone strike in August 2015. Since then she is believed to have risen through the ranks of the terror group. Following Hussain's death, she tweeted that she was proud her 'husband was killed by the biggest enemy of Allah' and that she would 'never love anyone but him'. In 2015 it emerged that Jones was grooming British teenage girls online under the Islamic name Sakinah Hussain. Jones then tried to persuade the young girls to travel to the Middle East and become jihadi brides. A known ISIS recruiter, her name was added to a US kill list, but she has continued to post threatening anti-Western messages online. In one 2016 post she wrote: 'I just wanna say…have a nice summer. I wouldn't go into central London through June or July. Well, to be honest, I wouldn't go there at all by Tube.' In July a friend described Jones as being desperate to return to the UK, but she was apparently being forced to stay by her husband's comrades. A petition which called for a ban on the mother ever returning to Britain was signed by more than 18,000 people. Advertisement

'If there is a God, why can't he stop it?' she added.

Relatives described JoJo as a happy little boy who loved reading encyclopaedias and adored animals so much that 'he'd never even tread on an ant'.

'It's worse than being in mourning,' said the family friend who spoke to the Mail.

'They love Joe and miss him but are scared of the forces that have turned him. His grandmother has lost her grandson.

'She doesn't think she can do anything to get him back, and even if he does come back he's not the same boy who went out there.'

Major General Chip Chapman, the former MoD head of counter terror, said Jones would have been a 'significant' target as a result of her alliance with Hussain and her role in recruiting ISIS fighters.

Referring to reports her son was killed in the strike, he added: 'It is a difficult one because under the UN Charters he is under the age of what we would classify as a soldier.'

He continued: 'Even if he got up to really bad things, he shouldn't have been targeted. We don't know for sure whether he was with her or not.'

In July a friend said Jones was desperate to return to the UK but she was apparently being forced to stay by her husband's comrades.

'Aisha', the wife of another ISIS fighter, said: 'She was crying and wants to get back to Britain but ISIS is preventing her because she is now a military wife. She told me she wished to go to her country.'

Jones had used her Twitter account to spread propaganda for the group, and tweeted of her wish to behead a Western prisoner in Syria and behead Christians with a 'blunt knife'.

In May 2016 an account claiming to be Jones posted: 'To be honest I wouldn't go into Central London through June. Or even July. Well to be honest I wouldn't go there at all, especially by Tube.'

According to the Counter-Extremism Project, Jones issued terror threats against Britain as recently as May 2016.

She has previously called on Muslim women to launch attacks during Ramadan in London, Glasgow and Wales.

Jones even threatened one of the Navy SEALs who helped kill Osama bin Laden.

It is believed that Jones lived on benefits in Chatham, Kent before converting to Islam. She had previously worked as a L'Oreal saleswoman.

The Government last night said it did not comment on national security operations.