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.



Chinese Navy Helicopter Flies within 10 Feet of Philippine Patrol Plane Over Disputed Shoal 

A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic (BFAR) aircraft above Scarborough shoal on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic (BFAR) aircraft above Scarborough shoal on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
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Chinese Navy Helicopter Flies within 10 Feet of Philippine Patrol Plane Over Disputed Shoal 

A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic (BFAR) aircraft above Scarborough shoal on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)
A Chinese military helicopter flies close to a Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic (BFAR) aircraft above Scarborough shoal on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (AP)

A Chinese navy helicopter flew within 10 feet (3 meters) of a Philippine patrol plane on Tuesday in a disputed area of the South China Sea, as the Filipino pilot warned by radio: “You are flying too close, you are very dangerous.”

The helicopter was attempting to force a Cessna Caravan turbo-prop plane belonging to the Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources out of what China claims is its airspace over the hotly disputed Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines.

An Associated Press journalist and other invited foreign media representatives on the plane witnessed the tense 30-minute standoff as the Philippine plane pressed on with its low-altitude patrol around Scarborough with the Chinese navy helicopter hovering close above it or flying to its left in cloudy weather.

“You are flying too close, you are very dangerous and endangering the lives of our crew and passengers,” the Philippine pilot told the Chinese navy helicopter by radio at one point. “Keep away and distance your aircraft from us, you are violating the safety standard set by FAA and ICAO.”

The pilot was referring to the standard distance between aircraft required by the US Federal Aviation Administration and the International Civil Aviation Organization to prevent air disasters.

The Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries said in a statement that they remain “committed to asserting our sovereignty, sovereign rights and maritime jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea, despite the aggressive and escalatory actions of China.”

They referred to the Philippine name for the stretch of waters in the South China Sea closer to the Philippines’ western coast.

Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the incident, but in past encounters they have steadfastly asserted China's sovereign rights over the Scarborough and surrounding waters and warned that its forces would protect the country's territorial interests at all costs.

Tuesday's encounter, which is expected to be protested by the Philippine government, is the latest flashpoint in a decades-long territorial standoff in one of the world’s busiest trade routes, which involves China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Confrontations on the high seas have spiked between Chinese and Philippine coast guards in the last two years at Scarborough, a traditional fishing area, and the Second Thomas Shoal, where a grounded Philippine navy ship has served as a territorial outpost since 1999 but has since been closely watched by Chinese coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships.

China deployed its coast guard, navy and suspected militia ships around Scarborough after a tense standoff with Philippine ships in 2012.

The following year, the Philippines brought its disputes with China to international arbitration. A 2016 decision by a United Nations-backed arbitration panel invalidated China’s expansive claim in the South China Sea based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

China, a signatory to the UNCLOS like the Philippines, refused to participate in the arbitration, rejected its outcome and continues to defy it.