The hunt for man in ISIS beheading video
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- UK officials are investigating a video showing an unmasked apparent British ISIS fighter
- A Downing Street spokesperson told CNN the video was released Friday
- PM David Cameron discussed the video with officials Saturday, the spokesperson said
- The video preceded another showing the beheading of Briton Alan Henning by ISIS
"The police are urgently
investigating the contents of the video, including possible terrorism
offenses relating to it," the spokesperson said.
The video was released the same day ISIS used another video to make public the beheading of Briton Alan Henning, 47 and threaten the life of U.S. aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, known as Peter Kassig before he converted to Islam.
Henning, a 47-year-old
taxi driver from Manchester, northern England, was part of a team of
volunteers who traveled to Syria in December 2013 to deliver aid to
people affected by the country's devastating civil war.
He was abducted by masked gunmen the day after Christmas, others in the aid convoy said.
ISIS blamed its killing
of Henning on the UK's decision to join the U.S.-led bombing campaign
against the group in Iraq and Syria.
Officials from Britain's
intelligence agencies, Foreign Office, Home Office, police and military
updated Cameron Saturday on work to take down the video of Henning and
find those responsible, the Downing Street spokesperson said.
"The PM was clear that we
must keep doing all we can to ensure that these terrorists are found
and brought to justice for their heinous crimes and we will keep working
with our U.S. partners and those in the region to do this.
ISIS "brutality will not
persuade us to change our approach. Indeed, the senseless murder of an
innocent man only reinforces our resolve to defeat this terrorist
organization and to eradicate the threat they pose to Britons -- whether
those in the region or here on the streets of the UK," the spokesperson
said.
UK jets began flying
reconnaissance flights over Iraq a week ago, and on Tuesday dropped
their first missiles on an ISIS heavy-weapon position and an armed
pickup truck in Iraq, according to the UK Defense Ministry.
Henning appears to be the fourth Westerner to be beheaded on camera by ISIS.
This summer, ISIS
beheaded American freelance journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff
-- showing their gruesome killings in videos posted online. ISIS then
claimed its first British victim, aid worker David Haines, according to
video that appeared online on September 13.
Henning's family had pleaded for his release and said in a statement it was "numb with grief" at news of his death.
"It is the news we hoped
we would never hear. As a family we are devastated by the news of his
death. There are few words to describe how we feel at this moment," his
wife, Barbara, said in a written statement released Saturday by the
United Kingdom's Foreign Office.
"We always knew that
Alan was in the most dangerous of situations but we hoped that he would
return home to us. That is not to be."
UK authorities believe
at least 500 British citizens have gone to Iraq and Syria, many of them
to fight with ISIS and other Islamist groups -- and that most will try
to return, bringing their extremist views with them.
Cameron last month laid
out new measures to tackle the threat posed by would-be UK jihadists,
days after Britain raised its terror threat level from "substantial" to
"severe."
No comments:
Post a Comment