Investigators are working to identify an Islamic State fighter with a British accent featured in a propaganda video released over the weekend, officials said.
"We are examining the content of the video," a British Home Office spokesman told ABC News today.
In the 10-minute online release, the masked militant addresses British Prime Minister David Cameron directly before apparently shooting five Syrian men in the head. It's unclear where and when it was made.
The jihadist reportedly could be Abu Rumaysah, a British national who
was arrested in September 2014, skipped bail and fled to Syria. ABC News
has not confirmed those media reports.
The video is an attempt to divert attention from their military failures
in Iraq and their inability to take care of citizens in the areas they
control, a British official told ABC News.
In a statement released today, the Ministry of Defense says “RAF
Tornado, Typhoon and Reaper [fighter aircraft] have flown intensive
armed reconnaissance missions across Syria and Iraq,” with repeated
successful attacks against terrorist positions in Ramadi and northern Iraq in recent days.
Investigators are also working to identify a young boy featured in the
video wearing military fatigues and saying in English: "We are going to
go kill the kaffir [non-believers] over there."
He is reportedly Isa Dare, the son of jihadi bride Grace "Khadija" Dare
of Lewisham, southeast London. She had posted a picture on social media
in July of Isa’s aiming an AK-47 automatic rifle. ABC News has not
confirmed those media reports.
On a visit to east London today, Cameron responded to the video, saying,
“It's desperate stuff from an organization that really does do the most
utterly despicable and ghastly acts and people can see that again
today.”
“They hate us not for what we do but for what we are - the fact that we
are a successful, tolerant, democratic, multi-faith, multi-ethnic
nation,” Cameron said, before adding: “I know that Britain will never be
cowed by this sort of terrorism. Our values are so much stronger than theirs. It may take a very long time but they will be defeated."
The radical Islamist group previously released propaganda videos showing
killings by British national Mohammed Emwazi, who became known as “Jihadi John,” and was killed in a U.S. drone strike in November.
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