Sally Jones, the Most Dangerous ISIS Operative Alive

Sally Jones | Asharq Al-Awsat
Sally Jones | Asharq Al-Awsat
TT
20

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.



Russia’s Latest Drone Strikes Hit Kyiv, Maternity Ward in Odesa, Ukraine Says 

A Russian drone is shot down by Ukrainian air defenses during a night strike on Ukraine's capital Kyiv on June 10, 2025. (AFP) 
A Russian drone is shot down by Ukrainian air defenses during a night strike on Ukraine's capital Kyiv on June 10, 2025. (AFP) 
TT
20

Russia’s Latest Drone Strikes Hit Kyiv, Maternity Ward in Odesa, Ukraine Says 

A Russian drone is shot down by Ukrainian air defenses during a night strike on Ukraine's capital Kyiv on June 10, 2025. (AFP) 
A Russian drone is shot down by Ukrainian air defenses during a night strike on Ukraine's capital Kyiv on June 10, 2025. (AFP) 

Russia launched another prolonged drone attack on Ukraine, killing two people and damaging swathes of Kyiv as well as striking a maternity ward in the southern port of Odesa, officials said early on Tuesday.

The overnight strikes followed Russia's biggest drone assault on Ukraine on Monday - part of stepped-up operations that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent brazen attacks in Russia.

At least four people were hospitalized in the capital as a result of the hours-long attacks that hit seven of the city's 10 districts, city officials said.

"You can't break Ukrainians with terror," Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's chief of staff, said in a Telegram post after the attacks.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called for tougher sanctions on Russia and air defense to strengthen Ukraine following the attack.

"Russia rejects any meaningful peace efforts and must face new, devastating sanctions. Already now. There is no more time to wait," he said.

Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT), according to military data.

"A difficult night for all of us," Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military district, said on Telegram. "Throughout the night, the enemy relentlessly terrorized Kyiv with attack drones. They targeted civilian infrastructure and peaceful residents of the city."

The Kyiv attack sparked fires in residential and non-residential neighborhoods and open space areas, city officials said. Reuters' witnesses heard and saw countless loud explosions shaking the city and lighting the night sky.

Photos and videos posted on Telegram channels showed heavy smoke rising in the early hours of the morning in different parts of Kyiv. The scale of the attack was not immediately known.

Moscow has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine following Kyiv's strikes on strategic bombers at air bases inside Russia on June 1. Moscow also blamed Kyiv for bridge explosions on the same day that killed seven and injured scores.

The attacks come despite pressure from US President Donald Trump on both sides to move towards a resolution on the war.

Moscow and Kyiv returned to negotiations for the first time in more than three years, but outside an agreement on the exchange of war prisoners, there has been no tangible progress.

In addition to swarms of drones and missiles launched in recent days, Russia has also been advancing further on the ground along the frontline in eastern Ukraine, claiming on Tuesday to take more territory there.

In the southern port of Odesa, a "massive" overnight drone attack targeted an emergency medical building and a maternity ward, as well as residential buildings, Oleh Kiper, governor of the broader Odesa region, said on Telegram.

Two men were killed in the attack, and nine people were injured, according to the Ukrainian prosecutors. Patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, Kiper added.

He posted photos of broken windows in what looked like a medical facility and of damage to the facade of several buildings.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war. But thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.