The United Kingdom’s elite military unit Special Air Service (SAS) will be sent to Syria with a hit-list of 20 top high-value Islamic State (IS) targets, including a British woman dubbed as ‘Mrs. Terror,’ according to a media report.
The kill mission is part of renewed efforts to eliminate IS commanders in Syria and will happen regardless of the outcome of Wednesday’s vote in parliament, the Daily Express reported.
The name is Sally Jones
Sally Jones, a mother of two from Kent, who has made herself invaluable to the IS is believed to be among the targets.
Jones’ husband Junaid Hussain was killed in a drone strike in the ISIS “capital” of Raqqa, Syria — the same city where the U.S. also caught up with “Jihadi John” — in August.
Tomahawk launch on the anvil
Other moves against IS will include deploying of Britain’s most sophisticated nuclear submarine into the eastern Mediterranean, armed and ready to launch a Tomahawk cruise missile strike on the IS’s Raqqa power base, the report said.
Around 40 members of the SAS are already supporting U.S. Special Forces in Syria but that number is to be doubled after defence chiefs ordered the head of Britain’s special forces to focus all efforts against IS jihadis in Iraq and Syria.
Key British terrorists main targets
Though the force will take part in a range of missions, its main task will be to target key British extremists.
While the names on the kill list remain secret, they are believed to include Jones, from Chatham, Kent, who converted to Islam and uses the name Sakinah Hussain.
A vital part of IS’ recruiting machine, she has vowed to behead Christians.
She is a live threat
According to intelligence sources, her links with the U.K. make her a “live threat” to national security.
In total 10 Britons are believed to be on the list, including British brothers Nasser and Aseel Muthana, aged 20 and 17. They left for Syria last year and are believed to have been close associates of the two Britons killed in the August drone strike. In all, more than 700 British nationals have left the U.K. to join the IS.
‘We will use our Afghanistan strategy’
“The SAS will use the same strategy in Syria that it used in Afghanistan, when they effectively destroyed the Taliban’s middle order,” a senior military source was quoted as saying.
The kill list was created from intelligence supplied by GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping service, and the U.S. National Security Agency.
Monitoring web activity, calls
Both organisations have spent the past two years monitoring phone calls and internet activity between terrorists. British Special Forces have already formed a series of “hunter-killer” teams with U.S. counterparts, including Delta Force and Seal Team 6.
