U.S. Launches Airstrike in Syria Targeting ISIS' Notorious 'Jihadi John'

U.S. forces launched an airstrike Thursday night in Raqqa, Syria, targeting Mohamed Emwazi, the ISIS terrorist known as "Jihadi John" seen in propaganda videos executing American hostages, the Defense Department said.

The masked Emwazi, a Kuwait-born British citizen, has participated in numerous videos showing the killings of Westerners, including American journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley, American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, officials said.

A senior U.S. official told NBC News that Emwazi was directly "targeted."

"There is no vengeance, but there is accountability," said the official, who stressed that "we are still assessing and not confirming" whether Emwazi had been killed.

Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff, told NBC News she hadn't been informed about the airstrike.