US officials said in November that they were reasonably certain the English-speaking voice of the terror group had been killed in a targeted drone strike in Raqqa, Syria, ISIL' de facto capital.

The confirmation in Dabiq was the first time ISIL addressed the militant's death. The magazine told the story of his journey into ISIL in a two-page article and reported that he was killed instantly by the drone strike.

As the masked face of ISIL, Jihadi John was featured in a series of hostage videos, dressed head-to-toe in black -- his eyes and voice his lone revealing features -- and holding a knife.

Earlier this month, a British-sounding militant appeared in a chilling propaganda video from ISIL. The speaker's accent and dress brought to mind Jihadi John, and the latter's absence lent credence to Western intelligence agencies' belief that he was indeed dead.

Dabiq published an image of Jihadi John with his face unmasked, CNN reported.

It reported he was originally from the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula, and that he traveled at a young age with his family to London, a place he "grew to hate."

Dabiq said he was shot in the back during one battle in Syria.

He was first seen in a video posted on YouTube in August 2014 that showed him holding a knife and threatening US journalist James Foley. The video ends by showing Foley's decapitated body.

Emwazi also is believed to have played a role in the beheadings of American journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British volunteer Alan Henning, US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.