AKIPRESS.COM - The U.S. military launched a drone strike Thursday targeting “Jihadi John,” the masked Islamic State terrorist who beheaded several Western hostages in Syria and came to symbolize the brutality of the militant group, U.S. officials said.

But the Pentagon is still working to determine whether the strike killed the militant, Briton Mohammed Emwazi. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the strike took place around the Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital, reports Washington Post.

“We are assessing the results of tonight’s operation and will provide additional information as and where appropriate,” Cook said.

If confirmed, Emwazi’s death would cap more than a year of Western efforts to hunt down a militant who became widely known in August 2014 when he appeared — masked and dressed from head to toe in black — in a video in which he killed American journalist James Foley.

Emwazi subsequently appeared in grisly videos showing the killing of foreign hostages — speaking to the camera in taunting tones, with a balaclava over his face, a knife in his hand and a holster under his left arm.

Emwazi is thought to have participated in the executions of Steven Sotloff, another American journalist; Abdul-Rahman Kassig, an American aid worker; ­David Haines and Alan Henning, both British aid workers; and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

Former Islamic State hostages have described Emwazi, one of a number of English-speaking captors dubbed “the Beatles” because of their British accents, as a ­vicious captor who waterboarded and beat hostages.

Officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive operation, said Thursday’s strike targeted a vehicle and may also have hit another member of the group called the Beatles.