'White Widow' Sally Jones reportedly killed in U.S. drone strike; Trace Gallagher reports from Los Angeles. When it came to recruiting foreigners to flee the comforts of home for the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, ISIS succeeded like no other -- encouraging more than 40,000 fighters from more than 110 countries to travel to the fighting fray both before and after the declaration of the "caliphate" in June 2014. Subsequently, authorities have warned about the threat of returning jihadists to their homeland and since the falls of Mosul, Raqqa and the rapidly receding footprint of ISIS, such fears have come to the forefront. According to a new report, "Beyond the Caliphate: Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees," released this week by the Soufan Center -- a Washington-based security intelligence consultancy -- there are now at least 5,600 citizens or residents from 33 countries who have returned home -- accounting for about 15 percent of the fighters. FILE - In this file picture taken on Friday, July 21, 2017, Kurdish soldiers from the Anti-Terrorism Units, carry a blindfolded an Indonesian man suspected of Islamic State membership, at a security center, in Kobani, Syria.

The spokesman for the coalition, Col. Ryan Dillon, tweeted on Thursday that the SDF has cleared 98 percent of the city, adding that some militants remain holed up in a small pocket east of the city's athletic stadium.

RAQQA, Syria – Drone footage from the northern Syrian city of Raqqa shows the extent of devastation caused by weeks of fighting between Kurdish-led forces and the Islamic State group. Footage from Thursday shows the bombed-out shells of buildings and heaps of concrete slabs lay piled on streets littered with destroyed cars. Entire neighborhoods are seen turned to rubble, with little sign of civilian life. The U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces announced they have driven Islamic State group militants out of the city after weeks of fighting. The spokesman for the coalition, Col. Ryan Dillon, tweeted on Thursday that the SDF has cleared 98 percent of the city, adding that some militants remain holed up in a small pocket east of the city's athletic stadium.

WASHINGTON – The imminent fall of the Islamic State's de facto capital leaves America a multitude of tasks to restore stability in the Middle East, starting with pockets of remaining IS resistance in Syria and Iraq. Then there are the more deeply rooted problems, not fixable by guns or bombs, that allowed extremism to rise and flourish: Syria's civil war and Iraq's intractable political, religious and ethnic disputes, which turned violent again this week. The challenge is more than the U.S. can handle alone. It likely will keep some troops in Iraq for years to come to train and advise the army, police and other members of security forces that imploded when IS fighters swept across the Syrian border and captured Mosul in June 2014. The militants also have footholds in Afghanistan and beyond.

Smoke rises near a stadium where some Islamic State militants are holed up after an air strike by coalition forces, in Raqqa, Syria, Oct. 12, 2017. Around 100 fighters from the Islamic State group have surrendered since Friday in Raqqa, with the Syrian city said to be on the brink of falling to a U.S.-led coalition. Meanwhile, a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province on Thursday killed 14 ISIS militants, Afghan officials said Saturday. In Raqqa, all of the combatants were "removed from the city," a spokesman for the U.S-led coalition against ISIS told Reuters on Saturday. ISIS was said to be on the verge of defeat in Raqqa, the report said.

Sally Jones, a former punk rocker from Kent, United Kingdom, who gained notoriety as "Mrs Terror" after joining the Islamic State group (also called ISIS), was reportedly killed in a United States drone strike along with her 12-year old son Jojo in Syria as she tried to escape Raqqa, the Sun reported. Though Whitehall sources confirmed reports that Jones was killed, according to the Guardian, the Pentagon was unable to confirm the news. Maj Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, told the Guardian, "I do not have any information that would substantiate that report but that could change and we are looking into this." Rukmini Callimachi, a correspondent for the New York Times, also said two senior U.S. officials denied that Jones was dead. Fifty-years-old Jones was born in Greenwich, southeast London, and later moved to Kent.

The operation to liberate the ISIS Syrian stronghold of Raqqa has entered its third month, and while the U.S. and its partners have largely depleted the enemy ranks - but lethal danger lurks throughout the city. There are about 1,500 ISIS fighters left in Raqqa, a big reduction from around 5,000 less than two months ago, according to Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve – the U.S.-led coalition tasked to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. But Raqqa is still teeming with landmines and booby traps, many set by fleeing jihadists. "Eighty percent of the engagement the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has had has been with IEDs, whether they be vehicle-born IEDs, inside houses, static vehicles and even IEDs planted inside corpses," Dillion told Fox News. "Those have been the proponents of how ISIS is fighting in Raqqa so far."

On the day U.S.-backed forces made a major breakthrough in the battle for Islamic State group's (ISIS) operation capital Raqqa, reports said the terror group's poster girl Sally Jones, also known as Mrs. Terror, is desperate to return to the U.K. This was revealed by the wife of a former ISIS militant who is now living in a refugee camp in Syria, in an interview to Sky News. The woman, known as Aisha, said of Jones: "She was crying and wants to get back to Britain. She told me she wish [sic] to go to her country. Aisha said Umma Hussain al Britani, the name adopted by Jones, was distraught and crying as her plea had been denied by ISIS leaders on the basis she considered a military wife. READ: Who Is Sally Jones? Jones is originally from from Chatham, Kent, became the leading female recruitment officer for ISIS after moving to Raqqa and marrying a now-dead jihadist in 2004. She is now the most wanted woman in the world after climbing to the top of the CIA assassination list, the Sun reported. Jones, 47, has remained at large since her husband, ISIS recruit Junaid Hussain, was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2015. The couple are thought to have been behind at least a dozen murderous attacks both in the Middle East and abroad. On September 28, 2015, the United Nations sanctioned Jones as an agent operating on behalf of a terrorist organization, the Mirror reported. Jones is believed to have enticed scores of would-be European jihadis to join the self-declared caliphate through her influential recruitment network called the "Raqqa 12," the Sun reported. Jones has been attributed with the recruitment and training of young girls in Syria. The Express quoted a counter extremism website as saying Jones's activity online was in line with her role as leader of the secret "Anwar al-Awlaki" battalion's female wing. "In this role, Jones is responsible for training all European female recruits, or'muhajirat', in the use of weapons and tactics.

WASHINGTON – A coalition drone strike in Syria killed three Islamic State group leaders involved in plotting foreign attacks, including two men who helped facilitate last year's attacks in Paris, the Pentagon said Tuesday. "The three were working together to plot and facilitate attacks against Western targets at the time of the strike," Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said in a statement. They were killed in a Dec. 4 airstrike in Raqqa, an IS group stronghold in Syria. Two of those killed -- Salah-Eddine Gourmat and Sammy Djedou -- were involved in facilitating the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris attacks, in which 130 people died, Cook said. Gourmat was a French national and Djedou, Belgian.