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.



Israeli Left-wing Leader Says War Must End, Government 'Doesn't Represent' The People

 Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Friday, June 6, 2025. (AP)
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Friday, June 6, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Left-wing Leader Says War Must End, Government 'Doesn't Represent' The People

 Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Friday, June 6, 2025. (AP)
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Friday, June 6, 2025. (AP)

Israeli left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan called on Monday for an immediate end to the Gaza war and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government no longer represented most Israelis.

"Today the government of Israel doesn't represent the vast majority of Israelis," said Golan, chairman of the Democrats party and a former deputy army chief, days before a planned parliament vote which the opposition hopes would trigger a general election.

He told journalists in a briefing that after more than 20 months of fighting, triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, Israel "should end the war as soon as possible".

Golan's party, a conglomeration of left-wing factions, has only four seats in Israel's 120-member legislature, making it one of its smallest political groups.

But in a country where coalition building is essential to achieving a political majority, even relatively small parties can wield considerable power.

Golan, a former deputy minister in a short-lived administration that replaced Netanyahu in 2021-2022, said that the current government -- one of the most right-wing in Israel's history -- was a threat to democracy.

The opposition leader said he represents those "who want to save Israeli democracy... from a corrupted future" and from the "messianic-like and nationalistic and extremist vision of a very small faction in the Israeli society".

"The vast majority wants to keep Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and at the same time a free, egalitarian and democratic state," Golan said.

He said that the vast majority of Israelis wanted to see an immediate end to the war in Gaza, the return of all hostages held by Palestinian fighters in a single exchange deal, and the establishment of a national commission of inquiry into Hamas's unprecedented 2023 attack, arguing that the Netanyahu government was opposed to these objectives.

"I believe that we can reach a hostages deal in a matter of days," Golan said.

"I believe that by ending the war and freeing the hostages, we will be able to build an alternative to Hamas inside the Gaza Strip."

Criticizing the government's Gaza war policies, the former army general has recently drawn condemnation in Israel for saying that "a sane country... does not kill babies for a hobby".

Golan on Monday also said that most Israelis support legislation that would require ultra-Orthodox Jewish men, who are currently largely exempt from military service, to enlist.

The issue has sparked tension between Netanyahu and ultra-Orthodox parties in his government, with lawmakers threatening to topple the prime minister if no agreement is reached this week.

Some opposition parties are seeking to place a bill to dissolve parliament on Wednesday's plenary agenda, hoping to capitalize on the ultra-Orthodox revolt.

"The vast majority wants new elections as soon as possible," Golan said.