Sally Jones, the Most Dangerous ISIS Operative Alive

Sally Jones | Asharq Al-Awsat
Sally Jones | Asharq Al-Awsat
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Sally Jones, the Most Dangerous ISIS Operative Alive

Sally Jones | Asharq Al-Awsat
Sally Jones | Asharq Al-Awsat

British Sally Jones, nicknamed the White Widow, is still alive after news of her death in Syria in 2017 and still poses a major threat to Britain, Birmingham Live website revealed.

The website said on Sunday that she is still alive and fighting, according to an ISIS Canadian militant who was captured by Syrian Democratic Forces.

Mohammed Ali, who uses the alias Abu Turab, suggested Jones was alive and hiding out in Syria’s north-east.

He has been captured for nearly four months now after being arrested Ras al-Ayn city, at the borders between Syria and Turkey.

Reports said the White Widow died following a US airstrike on the convoy she was traveling with from Raqqa in June.

It was reported at the time that her son was also killed in the attack, possibly due to Jones using him as a human shield.

The British site revealed aspects of Jones’ life as one of the most dangerous wanted in the world after joining ISIS in 2013.

Born Sally-Anne Frances Jones in Greenwich, south-east London, she had a troubled upbringing, with her parents divorcing and her father committing via overdose, Birmingham Live said.

Raised a Catholic, she attended Christian youth groups but failed to find a positive path in life, dropping out of school. She became the singer and lead guitarist in an all-girl rock band called Krunch.

Jones’s interests are also thought to have included conspiracy theories, black magic, and witchcraft, according to posts on online forums attributed to her.

She worked as a perfume saleswoman for a global brand before converting to Islam in May 2013 and leaving for Syria the following month.

Before leaving, Jones, 45 then, met her extremist 20-year-old then husband Hussain Junaid, who was a British internet hacker.

Junaid invited her to join him in Raqqa, which was the terror group’s de-facto capital.

She took with her one of her sons, who was 10 years old at the time.

When she arrived in Syria, she began working with her husband, who was killed in a US drone raid later in 2015, in recruiting foreign fighters through social media to threaten Western interests in Europe.

Jones was said to have been in charge of the female wing of the Anwar al-Awlaki battalion, a unit of foreign fighters set up by Hussain.

Hundreds of British women are thought to have been persuaded to join ISIS by the prolific online recruiter.

Following her husband’s death, she was named the White Widow and expressed her pride in his death, adding that she would not love anyone after him.

According to the information provided, Junaid was an electronic expert and leader of the "cyber-caliphate" wing.

The ISIS widow was feared to have slipped back into the UK with two suspected militants after a reported sighting in Birmingham in August 2015.

The hunt later switched to Glasgow, but there was no further information about her whereabouts afterward.



Russian Drone Hits Nuclear-Fuel Storage Facility Near Chornobyl, Ukraine Says

15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
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Russian Drone Hits Nuclear-Fuel Storage Facility Near Chornobyl, Ukraine Says

15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)
15 September 2021, Ukraine, Chornobyl: A group of tourists stand at the memorial in front of unit four of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, which exploded in 1986. (dpa)

Russian forces deliberately struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Ukraine's Chornobyl power plant, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, in an "extremely vile" attack that did not lead to a spike in radiation.

The strike significantly damaged a fuel-reception building meters away from where "large amounts of nuclear material" is stored, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said it had ‌been briefed ‌by Ukraine.

Kyiv's state atomic agency ‌Energoatom ⁠said no spent ⁠fuel had been stored in the building at the time of the attack. A resulting fire was extinguished, and no injuries were reported.

Russia has not publicly commented on the alleged strike on the facility, which is located around ⁠15 km (9 miles) from the Chornobyl ‌plant, the site ‌of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

"An extremely critical infrastructure ‌facility – and an extremely vile Russian strike," ‌Zelenskiy wrote on X, adding that Russia had used a Shahed attack drone.

"As of now, there are no readings exceeding normal background radiation levels. But ‌there is certainly an increase in Russia's brazenness, which long ago went off ⁠the ⁠charts."

In a statement, the IAEA said a team would soon visit the site "to inspect the impact".

In February 2025, a Russian Shahed drone damaged a containment arch over the Chornobyl reactor that was destroyed in the April 1986 explosion and meltdown. Russia, which regularly attacks Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with drones and missiles, denied responsibility.

Kyiv and Moscow have also traded accusations of attacking the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe's largest.


Quakes Rattle Greek Island Near Athens, No Injuries Reported

 Tourists visit the 5th century BC Propylaea on the Acropolis Hill during a hot day, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
Tourists visit the 5th century BC Propylaea on the Acropolis Hill during a hot day, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
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Quakes Rattle Greek Island Near Athens, No Injuries Reported

 Tourists visit the 5th century BC Propylaea on the Acropolis Hill during a hot day, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)
Tourists visit the 5th century BC Propylaea on the Acropolis Hill during a hot day, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP)

Two successive quakes with a magnitude near 5 hit the Greek ‌island of ‌Evia, northeast ‌of Athens, ⁠on Sunday, data ⁠from the Athens Geodynamic Institute showed.

No injuries ⁠were reported, ‌but ‌there were ‌some ‌reports of rocks falling from the tremor, ‌which was felt in the ⁠Greek capital ⁠about 130 km (80 miles) away from the epicenter in northern Evia.


Over 1.2 Million People Attend Pope's Mass in Madrid

27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Over 1.2 Million People Attend Pope's Mass in Madrid

27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
27 May 2026, Vatican, Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV leads the Wednesday General Audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Photo: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

More than 1.2 million people filled the streets of Madrid on Sunday for a mass by Pope Leo XIV at which he called for a renewal of the Catholic faith in Spain.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia joined throngs of devotees waving Spanish and Vatican flags in Cibeles Square for a service filled with religious symbolism.

In his homily, Pope Leo said Spaniards should not look at religion as "a museum of the past to be visited, but a school of faith from which to draw even today".

The mass comes on day two of Pope Leo's seven-day visit to Spain, a traditional Catholic bastion where religious observance has been declining sharply in recent years as in much of western Europe.

A huge logistical and security operation was in place for the event, after which the pope led a traditional procession along a route lined with white and yellow carnations -- the Vatican flag colors, AFP said.

Organizers said there were more than 1.2 million people attending in the square and the surrounding area.

Nico Aldeanueva, 28, who was visiting from Philadelphia in the United States, said the pope was "a very unifying force in a moment where we have division across so many different fronts".

"We have, it seems like, never-ending conflict and for the time being here you get to hit pause and get to enjoy the moment and feel the faith."

Ana Milagros, 64, who was waving a Vatican flag, said she thought the US-born pope seemed "approachable" and "very sincere".

"There is a lot of polarization and differences in politics, in social matters, in the economy," she said, adding: "The pope is trying with this visit... to help all of us."

- Focus on migration -

Later on Sunday, Leo will meet the leading lights of culture, sport and the economy at an arena, with the aim of fostering dialogue between faith and modern civil society.

Around 56 percent of Spaniards identify as Catholic compared to 90 percent in the 1970s, according to a survey last month by the Center for Sociological Research, an autonomous government body.

On Saturday, 500,000 mostly young attendees congregated with Leo outside Real Madrid's Bernabeu stadium for a prayer vigil that stretched into the night.

Leo kicked off his visit with pomp and ceremony at a reception in Madrid's royal palace, where he called for an end to "polarizing narratives" and "sterile simplifications".

The pope also praised Spain, whose left-wing government has sparred with his native United States as well as Israel over wars in the Middle East, for its "active commitment to peace and solidarity among peoples".

Leo is due to visit Barcelona on Tuesday and Wednesday, where he will notably bless the Sagrada Familia basilica's recently completed tower, which made it the world's tallest church.

His trip will end with a focus on migration on Thursday and Friday in the Canary Islands, a key destination for irregular arrivals, with thousands dying in the Atlantic Ocean trying to reach them.