ISIS Beheads Aid Worker David Haines In "A Message To The Allies Of America" Video
A new video from the Islamic State has emerged claiming to show the beheading of British man David Haines and also allegedly threatens America and her allies for actions in the Middle East.
By Sadho Ram — 14 Sep 2014, 02:31 PM — Updated almost 10 years ago
Hours after the family of David Haines, an aid worker who was captured in Syria last year, issued a public plea on Saturday urging his captors to contact them, a video emerged purporting to show the British aid worker before he was beheaded by an ISIS fighter
Islamic State militants have released a video which appears to show the beheading of British hostage David Haines
Image via dailymail.co.ukMilitants with the Islamic State jihadi group have released a video that appears to show the beheading of a British hostage, David Haines, an aid worker who was captured just days after he arrived in Syria last year. British government officials were seeking to authenticate the video which purported to show the final moments of Haines, who was 44.
theguardian.com
In the video, entitled A Message to the Allies of America, which runs to two and half minutes, a masked man is shown carrying out the beheading of 44-year-old David, whose life had earlier been threatened during the beheading of journalist Steven Sotloff
The video was released just one day after Haines' family issued a plea for his captors to contact them in a statement released by Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Haines was previously shown on camera during the execution of 31-year-old freelance journalist Steven Sotloff in a video that was posted online September 2 and verified as authentic by the US National Security Council on September 3. The latest video was first reported by SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks jihadist activity online.
INSITE: #IslamicState Beheads Briton David Haines, Threatens to Execute Another Briton, Alan Henning http://t.co/6cpFGOEOOb
— SITE Intel Group (@siteintelgroup) September 13, 2014
The 2:27 minute video is titled "A Message to the Allies of America," and bears similarities to previous videotaped executions released by the Islamic State, including the logo of al-Furqan productions, a media group associated with the militants. The footage was initially posted on an IS-affiliated Twitter account.
The video opens with British Prime Minister David Cameron making a statement about Iraq. The video then cuts to David and his captor, a masked man shrouded in black holding a knife.
The video shows Haines clad in an orange jump-suit kneeling beside a man who speaks in the same London-accented English as the apparent executioner in two previous videos. The masked man addresses British Prime Minister David Cameron, telling him that the killing is retribution for “your evil alliance with America, which continues to strike the Muslims of Iraq.”
washingtonpost.com“This British man has to pay the price for your promise, Cameron, to arm the Peshmerga against the Islamic State,” the executioner said. “My name is David Cawthorne Haines,” the hostage reportedly said before the execution. “I would like to declare that I hold you, David Cameron, entirely responsible for my execution. You entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State, just as your predecessor, Tony Blair, did, following a trend amongst our British Prime Ministers who can't find the courage to say no to the Americans.”
rt.comFoley and Sotloff made similar speeches to US President Barack Obama which have been dismissed as scripted by Islamic State and delivered under duress. The purported executioner appeared to be the same British-accented man who appeared in videos with Foley and Sotloff, and it showed a similar desert setting. In both videos, the captives wore orange jumpsuits. “Unfortunately, it is we the British public, that in the end that will pay the price for our parliaments selfish decisions.”, the alleged killer says. “This British man has to pay the price for your promise, Cameron”.
yahoo.com“Ironically, he has spent a decade of his life serving under the same Royal Air Force that is responsible for delivering those arms. Your evil alliance with America which continues to strike the Muslims of Iraq and most recently bombed the Haditha Dam will only accelerate your destruction.”
yahoo.com
The UK PM has acknowledged the video in a statement posted on Twitter and vowed to "hunt down" those responsible
The murder of David Haines is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to his family who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) September 13, 2014
We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) September 13, 2014
The video ends with a warning that a second British hostage, identified as Alan Henning, would be the next to be beheaded if Cameron continued to support the fight against Islamic State
At the end of the nearly two-and-a-half minute long video clip that allegedly shows the beheading of Haines, another hostage was paraded who could be next on the Islamic State kill list. The captive, standing on his knees and dressed in the sadly all-too-familiar orange jumpsuit, was identifiable as Alan Henning, according to Reuters.
rt.comThe British government had managed to keep the kidnapping of David secret out of concern for his safety until the Sotloff beheading video identified him as a captive and the next victim
Late Friday, the family of Haines issued a public plea urging his captors to contact them. In a short statement released through Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the family said: "We are asking those holding David to make contact with us."
haaretz.com
According to Brish media, David was educated in Perth, Scotland, and spent 11 years serving in the British Royal Air Force before becoming an international aid worker
Mike Haines said in a statement issued by the Foreign Office that his brother was devoted to humanitarian work. "David was most alive and enthusiastic in his humanitarian roles," Mike Haines said. "His joy and anticipation for the work he went to do in Syria is for myself and family the most important element of this whole sad affair. He was and is loved by all his family and will be missed terribly."
haaretz.com
David was abducted near a refugee camp in northern Syria in March 2013 while working for the French international aid agency ACTED which was helping thousands of Syrians displaced by the fighting between Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces and rebel groups, including the Islamic State, seeking to oust him. ACTED said in a statement earlier this month that Haines had worked with as an international aid worker since 1999, helping victims of conflict in the Balkans, Africa and the Middle East. Before heading to Syria, ACTED said Haines had worked in 2012 as a "non-partisan unarmed civilian peace facilitator" in South Sudan.