US airstrike targets ‘Jihadi John’ from IS slaying videos

US airstrike targets ‘Jihadi John’ from IS slaying videos

WASHINGTON

A U.S. drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting the masked Islamic State militant known as “Jihadi John” on Thursday, according to American officials. Whether the strike killed the British man who appears in several videos depicting the beheadings of Western hostages was not known, officials said.

Mohammed Emwazi was the target of an airstrike in Raqqa, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. Officials were assessing the results of the strike, he said.

A U.S. official told The Associated Press that a drone had targeted a vehicle in which Emwazi was believed to be traveling. The official was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

Black administrator appointed to lead university system

COLUMBIA, Mo.

One of the University of Missouri’s first black law school graduates was appointed Thursday to lead the four-campus system through a tumultuous period of racial unrest, drawing praise from students who said he’s well-equipped to confront the problems they felt his predecessor largely ignored.

Michael Middleton, 68, has spent 30 years at the university – as an undergraduate, law student, faculty member and, finally, administrator. At a news conference announcing his appointment as the university system’s interim president, he vowed to take on the racial problems that inspired the protests that helped force Monday’s abrupt resignation of President Tim Wolfe and another top administrator.

Iraqi Kurds cut IS supply line

SINJAR, Iraq

Supported by U.S.-led airstrikes, Kurdish Iraqi troops on Thursday seized part of a highway that is used as a vital supply line by the Islamic State group, a key initial step in a major offensive to retake the strategic town of Sinjar from the militants.

The town was overrun by the extremists as they rampaged across Iraq in August 2014, leading to the killing, enslavement and flight of thousands of people from the minority Yazidi community. The U.S. later launched an air campaign against the Islamic State militants, also known as ISIL, ISIS and, in Arabic, as Daesh.

Hours into Thursday’s operation, the Kurdish Regional Security Council said its forces controlled a section of Highway 47, which passes by Sinjar and indirectly links the militants’ two biggest strongholds – Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in northern Iraq – as a route for goods, weapons and fighters.

Obama awards Medal of Honor to Army captain

WASHINGTON

An Army captain who shoved a suicide bomber to the ground and away from his security detail became the nation’s newest Medal of Honor recipient Thursday as President Barack Obama credited his actions with preventing a greater catastrophe from occurring.

Florent Groberg, 32, is the 10th living service member awarded the nation’s highest honor for battlefield bravery in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Four people were killed in the attack, and several others were wounded. As families of the victims and some of his former Army colleagues watched, Obama draped the medal around Groberg’s neck at a White House ceremony.

Associated Press