YES - The Allies have bagged one

British teenage jihadi believed to have been killed in Syria
Western fighters in war-stricken country claim Ibrahim Kamara, also known as Khalil al-Britani, died in US air strike on Aleppo

Khalid al-Britani, whose real name is Ibrahim Kamara, is believed to have been killed in Syria. Photograph: Facebook
A 19-year-old from Brighton is believed to be among those killed in Syria in the past 48 hours, the Guardian has learned.

Two western fighters in Syria said Khalil al-Britani, whose real name is understood to be Ibrahim Kamara, died after a US air strike on Aleppo.

Kamara was described as being a member of Jabhat al-Nusra, an affiliate group of al-Qaida which has fought against both the forces of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and Islamic State militants in the country’s civil war.

A picture posted on Facebook on Tuesday night appears to show Kamara’s face in an unzipped body bag covered in fine sand.

The Guardian has not been able to independently verify whether Kamara was killed by a US air strike.

Kamara’s own Facebook page said he had recently studied at Vardean college in Brighton. The college confirmed that an Ibrahim Kamara had studied there for one year to resit his GCSE exams.

His mother, Khadijah Kamara, 35, who lives in Brighton, told the Guardian that she felt numb and confused when she was told on Tuesday that her son was dead. “It’s confusing. I don’t know what I felt or how I am feeling.”

Khadijah Kamara said she knew her eldest son was going to die when she found out he was in Syria. She came close to disowning him when he called to tell her where he was.

“He called me in February. He said: ‘Mum, I’m in Syria’, and I hung up. He rang again and I said: ‘Don’t ever call me.’”

She described Ibrahim as a “normal boy”, one of four sons she raised as a single mother, in Holland and Britain, who showed no sign of radicalisation.

“It’s something I never imagined that my own family would do. Even in my dreams it would never come close,” she said.

“It all happened so fast. He was just a normal boy, going to school, playing football. He wasn’t disrespectful. He just met the wrong people. Everything was quick, quick, quick, for him to take those measures and leave.”

Khadijah Kamara, who is the manager of the Strive In The Way of Allah charity in Brighton, said she abhorred violence of any kind and had brought up her sons as good Muslims.

Amer Deghayes, a fellow Jabhat al-Nusra fighter who is also from Brighton, posted on his Facebook page that “Ibrahim” had died.

Writing next to a picture of Kamara, Deghayes said: “May Allah Accept You Ibraheem Kamara. What an honor, he always use to tell me he wants to catch up with my brother Abdullah.”

A Swedish fighter using the moniker Abu Imaad As Sandzaki claimed Kamara had been hit by an American drone in Aleppo while he was sleeping. He died at the same time as a well-known Jahbat al-Nusra sniper, Abu Yusuf al-Turki.

Sandzaki, who is no longer fighting in Syria, said he discovered that Kamara was dead via a phone call from another fighter who was close to Kamara.

He said he had been with Kamara earlier this year in the north-west province of Latakia, as well as at the base where Kamara was killed.

When asked about Kamara’s motives for travelling to Syria, he said: “He wanted to contribute to the jihad in Syria and help the Muslims.”

Sandzaki said Kamara had told him that he had no intention of returning to the UK. “He said, and I quote: ‘I will never go back to the UK.’”

If the account is correct, Kamara may be the first British fighter killed as a result of US air strikes in Syria.

US military sources confirmed that a series of raids had been carried out on Aleppo to strike the Khorasan group, who they said were in “the final stages of plans to execute major attacks” around the world.

US Central Command said it conducted eight strikes against the group in the west of Aleppo and that those targets included training camps, an explosives and munitions production facility, a communication building and command and control facilities.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Jabhat al-Nusra fighters were hit.

Numerous postings on social media by jihadis in Syria claim around 50 fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra were killed in the first round of air strikes.

The Foreign Office said it was aware of reports of a British man being killed fighting in the country.