‘White widow’ jihadi killed by US drone: report

A British woman who was an active online recruit for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was killed in a U.S. drone strike earlier this year, The Sun newspaper reported Thursday.

Sally Jones, called the “White Widow” by British media, and her 12-year-old son were killed near Syria’s border with Iraq in June after attempting to flee the militant group’s de facto capital in Raqqa, The Sun reported.

A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Theresa May declined to comment on the report, but said that the “U.K. advises against all travel to Syria.”

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“As all U.K. consular services are suspended in Syria it is extremely difficult to confirm the whereabouts and the status of British nationals there,” the spokesman said, according to The Sun.

“Anyone who does travel to Syria for whatever reason is putting themselves in considerable danger — particularly if they are fighting for our enemies.”

According to the report, U.S. intelligence officials said they could not be absolutely certain Jones was killed in the drone strike, because there was no effort to recover her DNA, but they said they were “confident” that she is dead.

Her son was not known to be with her at the time of the strike and was not intentionally targeted, though he is presumed dead, as well. 

Jones, a former singer in a punk band, reportedly left her home in the U.K. in 2013 and traveled to Syria, where she married ISIS militant Junaid Hussain. He was killed in a drone strike in 2015.