British woman who joined ISIS killed in drone strike

A British woman who became a recruiter for the Islamic State terror group was reportedly killed along with her 12-year-old son in a U.S. drone strike in Syria in June.

The Sun reported on Thursday that Sally Jones, nicknamed the "White Widow," was killed in a drone strike while she was trying to flee from Raqqa in June.

CIA officials reportedly told their U.K. counterparts of Jones' death that same month, but it was not immediately revealed to the public due to concerns that her 12-year-old son, Jojo, may have also been killed in the drone strike.

It was reported that Jones, who left her home in Chatham, Kent with her son in 2013 to join ISIS, had regularly used the boy as a human shield.

The 12-year-old boy was believed to have been brainwashed by the terror group, undergoing lessons in radical Islam and firearms and martial arts training.

Last year, his grandparents identified him in an ISIS execution video, in which he brandishes a pistol while standing behind a row of kneeling prisoners in orange boiler suits.

Sources have noted that Jojo was not specifically targeted in the drone strike as he had not been deemed a combatant.

Jones, who previously sang in a punk band, became a key ISIS recruiter of female foreign jihadis and was designated by the U.S. as a High-Value Target.

She also ran the female wing of ISIS's notorious Anwar al-Awlaki battalion, a unit of foreign fighters founded by her husband, Junaid Hussain, who was also killed by a U.S. drone in 2015.

Hussain was reportedly behind a planned wave of terror attacks against the West, including on public commemorations in central London.

U.S. Intelligence chiefs had stated that they cannot be 100 percent certain that Jones had been killed in the drone strike as there had been no attempt to recover any of her DNA, but said that they were "confident" that she is dead.

"Cannot confirm death of ISIS propagandist Sally Jones as a result of a Coalition strike," Colonel Ryan Dillon, the U.S. spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS, tweeted on Wednesday.

Some intelligence sources have dismissed the claim that Jones was trying to flee Syria and was desperate to return to the U.K.

The sources claimed that she had no intention of returning home and was plotting attacks at a new ISIS headquarters when she was killed.

"She was not fleeing anything. She was still very much in the middle of it all. There is no evidence at all to suggest she had any interest in coming home," the intelligence source told The Sun.

It was also reported on Thursday that Jones was hit by the U.S. Air Force Predator drone alongside other senior ISIS commanders.

The British government has refused to comment on the reports of Jones' death. "I've seen the reports, I don't have any comments to make in relation to this specific case," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May on Thursday.