James Foley's parents say they find 'no solace' in the death of Jihadi John

Home Top

Jihadi John is 'evaporated' at ISIS' 'crucifixion' clocktower: US drone strike takes out British executioner at site of fanatics' worst crimes - but victims' families say they wanted 'coward to suffer'
ISIS claims responsibility for deadliest attack in Beirut since the civil war: Devastating double suicide bomb rips through heart of city killing at least 43 and wounding 239
James Foley's parents say they find 'no solace' in the death of Jihadi John because the US government made 'half the effort' to save their son as they did to kill the ISIS executioner
ISIS uses medium range missiles for the first time: Terror group kill boy and his grandfather alongside two farmers after launching attack on grain silos
Texas teen's death ruled a suicide by SNAKEBITE: Exotic animal-lover, 18, purposely let venomous monocled cobra bite him 'several' times, autopsy reveals
Flying home for the holidays? The best and worst airlines for seasonal travel revealed
'He doesn't know much about it': Obama belittles Ben Carson for suggestion that ISIS could be destroyed in Iraq 'fairly easily' by targeting oil fields
'I felt waves of pleasure': Mother claims she had an orgasm during LABOUR - and tells women that birth doesn't have to be painful
'Ultrapower' laser that can heat materials to temperature hotter that the core of the SUN could revolutionise energy production
EXCLUSIVE: Porn star who had sex with Hollywood actor secretly battling HIV fears epidemic as she reveals he has slept with at least 50 'adult actresses' AND transsexuals
Cop 'had no choice' but to shoot 13-year-old Tamir Rice dead, claims THIRD report on his death
San Diego resident used 13.8 MILLION GALLONS of water this past year during drought - even more than the much despised 'Wet Prince of Bel-Air'
Catholic high school football player, 16, dies 'falling off of a building' just hours after championship qualifier triumph
Actress and third wife of Cary Grant who introduced actor to LSD and survived the sinking of the Andrea Doria dies aged 92
Father whose 18-year-old daughter died from heroin overdose relives his desperate struggle to save her from addiction - and says he even tried to send her to jail
Suu Kyi party wins historic Myanmar election: Nobel peace prize winner secures landslide victory five years to the day since she was released from house arrest
Can you REALLY dress for success? Experts share their simple fashion rules for the office
Alien planet battered by 5,400mph winds: First weather map of an exoplanet shows gusts are 20 times stronger than ever seen on Earth
Phew! Mysterious UFO dubbed 'WTF' burns up in the atmosphere as it reaches Earth - but we may never know what it was
Donald Trump compares Ben Carson to a CHILD MOLESTER in a 90-minute tirade - and suggests the surgeon's 'pathological temper' that drove him to try and stab someone as a boy cannot be cured
Senator David Vitter acknowledges prostitution scandal in second TV ad in a week as Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson says Republican 'made some mistakes'
Trump calls Missouri student protests 'disgusting' and says he 'should have been the chancellor of that university'
'If Trump is President, it will be the end of the world': Jennifer Lawrence says The Donald would be a disaster and reveals she doesn't let people say Kim Davis' name in her home
Obama mocks Donald Trump's immigrant background as he accuses him of 'playing on fears' over migration

John and Diane Foley said the US government did not do enough for the hostages taken by ISIS and executed
Their son, journalist James Foley, 40, was held captive for two years before he was killed by Mohammed Emwazi, AKA Jihadi John, in August 2014
A U.S. drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting Emwazi on Thursday, with reports he was 'evaporated' by a missile
For more on Jihadi John's reported death visit www.dailymail.co.uk/isis

Published: 09:02 EST, 13 November 2015 | Updated: 09:34 EST, 13 November 2015

View
comments

The parents of slain American journalist James Foley say they have found 'no solace' in reports that their son's executioner, ISIS militant Jihadi John, has been killed by a US drone strike in Syria.

John and Diane Foley, who have been vocal of the US government's hostage policy since their son was killed in August 2014, maintained their stance in a statement to ABC News on Friday.

'This huge effort to go after this deranged man filled with hate - when they can't make half that effort to save the hostages while these young Americans were still alive. It's unfortunate that the government doesn't get it,' the statement said.

'They think it gives us solace, but it doesn't.'

Scroll down for video

No solace: Diane and John Foley (pictured in 2014 at a memorial for their son) said reports that their son's executioner was killed in a drone strike Thursday has not given them closure

James Foley, 40, was executed by Islamic State militants in August 2014, which was broadcast by ISIS in a video with 'Jihadi John'

The Foleys said that the government uses the policy of not ransoming captives or negotiating with terrorist groups to avoid keeping the loves ones of hostages such as their son (pictured) informed

Foley, 40, a freelance journalist from New Hampshire, was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012 and executed in August 2014.

He was shown in an ISIS propaganda video alongside the extremist killer.

'This huge effort to go after this deranged man filled with hate when they can't make half that effort to save the hostages while these young Americans were still alive.

The Foley's have been vocal about how the government shut them out and failed to help while their son was help captive for nearly two years. They said that for one year they didn't know if he was alive or dead, and that no one within the government was accountable for their son.

Speaking at a forum in February, John Foley said the major campaign to find Jihadi John - real name Mohammed Emwazi, 27, from London - overlooked a much more serious issue.

'The point is if we capture him and bring him to justice, what does that do? ISIS is still doing its thing. It's a very narrow approach. The only thing I'll be happy with is when ISIS is defeated,' Mr Foley said.

'The next ''Jihadi John'' is on the way.'

Psychopath: The British ISIS militant, whose real name is Mohammed Emwazi, carried out a number of beheadings of Western hostages in Syria. He is believed to have been killed in a U.S drone strike Thursday

Pentagon officials say they are '99 per cent' sure they wiped out Mohammed Emwazi on Thursday in the center of the terror group's stronghold of Raqqa.

The Kuwaiti-born British citizen, who appeared in sickening beheading videos of Western hostages, was 'evaporated' by a missile as he climbed into a car, officials said.

If they got him, great - it doesn't bring my son back

Emwazi is believed to have been hit near a symbolic clock tower where the group has carried out barbaric killings, including crucifixions, since capturing the city two years ago, activists have said.

The family of his other victims have also started speaking out amid the reports of Emwazi's death.

The mother of fellow US journalist Steven Sotloff echoed some of the comments made by the Foley's.

'If they got him, great - it doesn't bring my son back,' Shirley Sotloff told NBC.

'I don't think there will ever be closure.'

Bethany Haines, 18, the daughter of British victim David Haines, an aid worker, today told how she felt 'an instant sense of relief' after hearing reports of his death having previously said she would only have closure 'once there's a bullet between his eyes'.

But Stuart Henning, the nephew of British aid worker Alan Henning, who was also butchered by Emwazi, said he had mixed feelings because he had 'wanted the coward behind the mask to suffer'.

Emwazi had been the subject of an international manhunt for more than a year after he first appeared in a barbaric execution video in August last year.

A senior U.S. official, quoted by CNN, said the drone strike came after 'persistent surveillance' and claimed the authorities were certain it was Emwazi when they fired the missile.

The drone is believed to have been tracking Emwazi for most of the day yesterday and he was 'ID'd and engaged' when he came out of a building and got into a vehicle in Raqqa.

Another senior military source told the BBC there is a 'high degree of certainty' he had been killed.

Anti-ISIS activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently (RIBSS), which operates in the Syrian city, reported that Emwazi was killed at around 11.40pm last night and said it counted 14 air strikes in just nine minutes between 11.51pm and midnight.

THE ISIS HOSTAGES WHO WERE KILLED IN JIHADI JOHN'S MURDER VIDEOS

Mohammed Emwazi was involved in the murders of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig (also known as Peter Kassig) and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

In the videos, the tall masked figure was clad in black and speaking in a British accent.

He began one of the gruesome videos with a political rant and a kneeling hostage before him, then ended it holding a large knife in his hand with the headless victim lying before him in the sand.

Alan Henning (left) was a Salford taxi driver, who volunteered as an aid worker and David Haines (right) turned to humanitarian aid after a career in the RAF

Alan Henning was a Salford taxi driver, who volunteered as an aid worker in Syria in 2013, after being deeply affected by the plight of orphan children in the war-torn country.

The 47-year-old was kidnapped and held hostage for 10 months. Despite worldwide appeals and calls for mercy by his family the terror group released a video in October last year, of him kneeling in an orange jump-suit in the desert as he was beheaded by Jihadi John.

David Haines was a former RAF aircraft engineer, from Perth, who turned to humanitarian aid in 1999. He was kidnapped in March 2013 and was subject to a failed rescue mission by American forces in July 2014.

A video of the lead up and aftermath of Haines' beheading, entitled 'A Message to the Allies of America', was released by ISIS in September last year.

At the end of the video Emwazi said to the camera: 'If you, (David) Cameron, insist on fighting the Islamic State then you, like your master (Barack) Obama, will have the blood of your people on your hands.'

Steven Sotloff (left) was an American-Israeli journalist who was kidnapped by ISIS militants in Aleppo, Syria, in August 2013, after the kidnapping of James Foley (right)

Steven Sotloff was an American-Israeli journalist who was kidnapped by ISIS militants in Aleppo, Syria, in August 2013.

A video of his death was also released in September last year, sparking President Obama to come and warn ISIS that the US will take action to 'degrade and destroy' them.

James Foley was reporting on the Syrian civil war as a freelance journalist when he was abducted three years ago.

His captors spent months trying to negotiate a deal with US authorities, his employers and his family, demanding 130million euros for his release.

He was subjected to many mock executions, tortures and beatings during his time in captivity, before he appeared in an ISIS murder video in 2014.

Abdul-Rahman Kassig (left) and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto (right) were both killed in Jihadi John's videos

Former US army ranger Abdul-Rahman Kassig (also known as Peter Kassig) was 26 years old when he was beheaded.

He had been doing aid work in Lebanon and Syria when he was captured, while on his way to deliver food to refugees in Eastern Syria.

He converted to Islam while in captivity and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman in December 2013.

In October last year ISIS released a video which showed Kassig being killed.

Japanese journalist Kenji Goto appeared in an ISIS video in January, where Jihadi Johnproclaimed to Japanese prime minister: 'Because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin.'