Wife of Jihadi John victim wishes he was captured alive

Paris: The wife of a British hostage killed by "Jihadi John", the Islamic State militant targeted by a US drone strike in Syria, said today his death would mean "one monster less" but she wished he had been captured alive.

"I have heard the news but it doesn't bring me any comfort because nothing will bring back my husband," said Dragana Prodanovic Haines, the Croatian wife of aid worker David Haines who was kidnapped by IS and killed last year.

"I regret that he was not captured alive but at least he will not kill any more people," she told AFP by phone from Croatia, where she lives with her five-year-old daughter.

Jihadi John -- real name Mohammed Emwazi -- appeared in a series of execution videos of Western hostages last year, including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as British aid workers Haines and Alan Henning.

Senior military figures have said it is highly likely the Kuwaiti-British militant was killed in the drone strike on Thursday, though it has yet to be officially confirmed.
Prodanovic Haines said she had yet to receive any news from British police on the attack, but that death would "have been too soft a punishment".

"I would have preferred that he be captured and put before a court as well as the families of all his victims," she said.

"(His death) would mean one monster less, but that is only the tip of the iceberg," she said, adding that it would take much more to eradicate radical Islamism.

She welcomed the efforts of the Pentagon in tracking down the militant, but said she wished the same efforts had been deployed to save the hostages.

Addressing herself to the parents of Emwazi, she said she was not sorry for their son's death.

"I am only sorry that you lost your son when he transformed into a monster who has caused so much pain to numerous families the world over."