Yet another horrifying video has been released by ISIS on Friday. And this time it shows the beheading of a British aid worker Alan Henning.
Despite earlier pleas by his family to release him, this brutal execution was apparently done by ISIS after Alan has read out a message blaming his country UK for joining the US-led bombing campaign against the group in Iraq and Syria.
This is the fourth westerner – from among the several hostages that ISIS has with them – whose video of beheading has been released by the Islamic State declared by ISIS.
Earlier, two American freelance journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and a British aid worker David Haines also fell to this black-dressed executioner’s brutal sword.
What pains me is that ISIS is not sparing aid-workers and journalists who have nothing to do with the war, or with the Foreign Policies of US or UK.
All the aid workers had being doing was to help the poor and displaced of Iraq and Syria, with relief supplies. And all the journalists had been doing was reporting the truth of what they saw to the world that needs to know.
In this latest video, just before Alan Henning’s killing, the executioner with a knife in his hand is heard addressing the UK Prime Minister saying, “The blood of David Haines was on your hands, Cameron. Alan Henning will also be slaughtered, but his blood is on the hands of the British Parliament.”
So, he is clearly referring to the British parliament’s vote approving the resolution of UK to join the coalition of countries led by US, in order to take action against ISIS.
This video is apparently similar to the previous three, with a scripted statement being delivered by each of the victims.
However, this video is supposedly shorter and shows none of the surroundings. But just like the previous three videos, it ends with a threat that they will be killing another hostage soon. This time, the group threatened the life of the American aid worker Peter Kassig, who is a hostage with them.
In all the four videos, the man who is the executioner wears a black dress covering almost everything but eyes. He wears a leather strap with a pistol and waves a knife in his left hand.
The killer’s British accent is making forensic experts use various voice analyses to try and identify who he could be. Some reports suggest that they have been able to identify him as a Briton who went to serve the ISIS.
But whatever their findings might reveal, the brutality of the videos is too horrible for the world to ignore.
CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) of USA estimates that IS could have as many as 31,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, where the group has already seized large territories in recent months.
And an estimate of its military power is still unclear because arms and ammunition in Iraq and Syria under their command is apparently immense; and there are piles and unaccounted weaponry in some other countries that must have flown there. Their strength must therefore be quickly and effectively analysed, and then strategies reworked.
The depravity of their deeds must be severely condemned by all nations that value human life, and all nations must make a collective effort to combat this menace that is devouring the lives of thousands of innocents.
I hope that the coming together of over 40 nations in a coalition against these mass murderers, will soon succeed in – what US President Obama stated as – ‘downgrading and destroying” the network of terror.