Europeans have prominent role in beheading video
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| Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins addresses the media in Paris, France, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. A Paris prosecutor says that a French 22-year-old convert to radical Islam appears in a video showing a beheaded American aid worker and the deaths of Syrian soldiers. Molins identified the man as Maxime Hauchard, and said that he has been on the radar of French authorities since he left for Syria in 2013 under cover of humanitarian action. |
PARIS (AP) --
The cold-eyed militants lined up behind their victims in the latest
Islamic State video appear to come from outside the Middle East,
including one from France and possibly two from Britain, as the
extremist group tries to show a global reach.
The
grisly video - clearly aimed at a Western audience - lingers as much on
the faces of the camouflaged extremists as the men who are beheaded.
The victims include American aid worker Peter Kassig and more than a
dozen Syrian soldiers.
The images of the
Islamic State militants, who are shown one by one in close-up, allowed
authorities to identify one of them Monday as a 22-year-old Frenchman
who converted to radical Islam.
Maxime
Hauchard has been on the radar of French authorities since 2011 when he
took two trips to Mauritania to attend a Quranic school, said Paris
prosecutor Francois Molins. The prosecutor said investigators were
trying to determine if another Frenchman also is in the video.
President Barack Obama confirmed Kassig's slaying after a U.S. review of the video.
The
overwhelming majority of Islamic State fighters are from the Mideast,
but the extremist group is trying to cement its claim on an Islamic
empire straddling Iraq and Syria. Europe appears to be a fertile ground
to find supporters, with officials saying thousands of young Europeans
have headed off to jihad. More than 1,000 people in France alone are
under surveillance for suspected plans to join the militants, officials
said.
In the video released Sunday, some of
the knife-wielding extremists standing behind their kneeling victims had
distinctly Asian features. Another whose face was hooded had the
familiar London accent of the jihadi who also appeared in beheading
videos with American hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and with
British hostages David Haines and Alan Henning. There also were
indications that a Welsh medical student may be the man standing next to
Hauchard.
"It's quite transparent that IS is
trying to exaggerate its base of support," said Charlie Winter, a
researcher at the Quilliam Foundation in London. "They are trying to
show that Muslims from all over the world are protecting their Syrian
brethren and their Iraqi brethren."
European officials are trying just as furiously to counter that message.
"I
call solemnly and seriously on all our citizens, and notably our young
people who are the primary target of the terrorist propaganda, to open
your eyes to the terrible reality of the actions of Daesh," said French
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, using an Arabic acronym for the
Islamic State group. "These are criminals that are building a system of
barbarity."
Hauchard gave an interview to
France's BFM television in July, telling the network he had helped
capture Mosul, the Iraqi city whose fall eventually prompted the United
States to resume military operations in Iraq.
"We're waiting for death," Hauchard said at the time. "My objective is to be a martyr."
A
man from Wales, Ahmed Muthana, said he thinks he saw his son,
20-year-old Nasser Muthana, in the latest video, and Winter, the British
researcher, confirmed the likeness.
"It
resembles him. I was shown a picture of the video. I cannot confirm it
is him, but I think it might be," Ahmed Muthana told Britain's Press
Association.
Kassig had gone to Syria on a
humanitarian mission. His parents, Ed and Paula Kassig, said Monday that
while their hearts have been shattered by his death, they believe his
life is proof that "one person can make a difference."
"In
26 years, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand more of the harsh
realities of life than most of us can imagine," Paula Kassig said in
Indianapolis, Indiana, reading a brief statement. "But rather than
letting the darkness overwhelm him, he has chosen to believe in the good
- in himself and in others.
As for the French militant in the video, Molins said he had used aid work as a pretext.
"The humanitarian action was a facade. In fact, he wanted to fight and join Islamic State agents," Molins said.
With Kassig's death, the Islamic State group has killed five Westerners it was holding.
Unlike
previous videos of slain Western hostages, the latest one did not show
the decapitation of Kassig, the moments leading up to his death or
threaten to kill any other Western hostages.
It
identified the militants' location as Dabiq, a town in northern Syria
that the Islamic State group uses as the title of its English-language
propaganda magazine and where they believe an apocalyptic battle between
Muslims and their enemies will occur.
The
high-definition video also showed the beheadings of about a dozen men
identified as Syrian military officers and pilots, all dressed in blue
jumpsuits.
All of the militants wore brand new
camouflage uniforms, except for the black-clad man who spoke with a
British accent and warned that U.S. soldiers will meet a similar fate.
"We
say to you, Obama: You claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years
ago," the militant said. "Here you are: You have not withdrawn. Rather,
you hid some of your forces behind your proxies."
A
U.S.-led coalition is targeting the Islamic State group in airstrikes
in northern Syria, supporting Western-backed Syrian rebels, Kurdish
fighters and the Iraqi military. The U.S. said 31 airstrikes had been
carried out from Nov. 14-17 against Islamic State group targets.
U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry said the Islamic State group could grow
worldwide if left unchecked. Already, he said, the IS has seized more
land and resources "than al-Qaida ever had on its best day of its
existence."
IS "leaders assume that the world
will be too intimidated to oppose them," Kerry said. "But let us be
clear: We are not intimidated."
Kassig served
in the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, a special operations unit, and
was deployed to Iraq in 2007. After being medically discharged, he
returned to the Middle East in 2012 and formed a relief group, Special
Emergency Response and Assistance, to help Syrian refugees.
The
Islamic State group still holds other captives, including British
photojournalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in several videos
delivering statements, likely under duress, and a 26-year-old American
woman captured last year in Syria while working for aid groups. U.S.
officials have asked that the woman not be identified for er safety.
The
group's militants have beheaded or shot dead hundreds of captives,
mostly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers, celebrating the mass killings in
graphic videos.
The Islamic State group has
declared a self-styled Islamic caliphate in areas under its control,
which it governs according to its violent interpretation of Shariah law.
