The coalition had reason to suspect that Umarayn posed an “immediate threat” to coalition forces in the area, Ryan said in an emailed statement.

Umarayn was also “involved in the killing of American citizen and former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig,” the statement said, and he was linked to or directly involved in executing several other prisoners.

Kassig, who changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig after he converted to Islam while in Islamic State captivity, was executed at some point in November 2014, a year after he was taken hostage in Syria. His captors released a video showing his decapitated head beside his body but did not include scenes of the execution, unlike with the other hostages they killed.

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Umarayn is the first Islamic State figure to be publicly identified as having been involved in Kassig’s execution. He is also the first identified as having been killed in an airstrike since the U.S.-led coalition targeted Mohammed Emwazi, who was known as “Jihadi John,” in November 2015.

Emwazi had been the ringleader of a group of four Islamic State fighters nicknamed “The Beatles” by their captives and was identified as the man who appeared in the video of the execution of American journalist James Foley in August 2014.

The U.S. military did not say how they knew Umarayn was involved in Kassig’s killing or what role he may have played. He was with several other Islamic State members when the strikes were carried out, Ryan said.

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