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Britain’s Cameron: ‘We will drive back, dismantle and ultimately destroy ISIL’ Cameron condemns Islamic State’s killing of British aid worker
(about 5 hours later)
LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday condemned the “despicable” killing of the British aid worker David Haines by Islamic State extremists and vowed to do everything possible to hunt down his killers and bring them to justice. LONDON — British Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday condemned the “despicable” killing of British aid worker David Haines by Islamic State extremists and vowed to do everything possible to hunt down his killers and bring them to justice.
“Step by step we will drive back, dismantle and ultimately destroy ISIL and what it stands for. We will do so in a calm, deliberate way but with an iron determination,” Cameron said in a televised statement, using an abbreviation for the Islamic State. “Step by step we will drive back, dismantle and ultimately destroy ISIL and what it stands for. We will do so in a calm, deliberate way but with an iron determination,” Cameron said in a televised statement, using an alternative acronym for the Islamic State.
Cameron, who led an emergency government meeting Sunday to discuss the killing, said that the country was “sickened” that a Briton could have done this to a fellow Briton. Cameron, who led an emergency government meeting Sunday to discuss the killing, said the country was “sickened” that a Briton could have done this to a fellow Briton.
Islamic State militants on Saturday released a video showing the execution of Haines in the same grisly manner as the killing of two American journalists in recent weeks, along with a threat to kill another Briton. Islamic State militants on Saturday released a video showing Haines being executed in the same grisly manner as two American journalists in recent weeks, along with a threat to kill another British hostage, Alan Henning.
The video, titled “A Message to Allies of America,” 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 video, titled “A Message to Allies of America,” shows Haines, a 44-year-old Scot, clad in an orange jump-suit kneeling beside a man who speaks in the same London-accented English as the apparent executioner in videos of the two previous killings.
The masked man addresses Cameron, telling him that the killing is retribution for “your evil alliance with America, which continues to strike the Muslims of Iraq.” In his address Sunday, Cameron stressed Britain’s support for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq but did not indicate whether the country would join the United States in direct military intervention. Britain has offered humanitarian aid and arms to Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State in northern Iraq.
The video ends with a threat to kill a man, Alan Henning, who the Islamic State claimed is another British hostage of the terrorist group. Although Cameron has come under domestic pressure to join the U.S. military operation in Iraq, it seems unlikely that any decision will be made soon ,with the British leader focused on Scotland, which on Thursday will vote on whether to break away from the United Kingdom.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said Sunday that there was “no reason” not to believe the video was “genuine.” Jonathan Eyal, international director at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, said that Britain will probably join the U.S. effort in some fashion but that any serious signals of that intent at this time would “provide wind in the sails of the nationalists.”
Cameron tweeted a statement late Saturday saying that “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.” Cameron also vowed to “do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.” “It brings back painful memories of the Blair period,” he said, referring to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was deeply unpopular with Scotland. “It would be very easy for nationalists in Scotland to claim that, ‘See, this is what happens if you remain part of the U.K. You are a poodle to the Americans, you get dragged into any conflict that’s going on. There will be no movement until at least this Friday, when the ballot boxes are sealed,” he said.
The killing of Haines, a 44-year-old father of two from Scotland who was working for the French aid agency ACTED, is likely to intensify calls in Britain for more direct action against the Islamic State. He said that the Scottish electorate is center-left and that the argument that Westminster politicians have dragged the U.K. into unnecessary wars has been part and parcel of the nationalist tune in Scotland.
Britain has previously said it is sending arms to Kurdish fighters battling the group and is supporting American airstrikes with surveillance and intelligence. When Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, was asked by the BBC on Sunday about an independent Scotland’s view on airstrikes against the Islamic State, he did not rule them out but said, “There’s an urgent requirement to get back to collective action under the United Nation. . . . There is a real opportunity, I would have thought, for effective, international, legal action, but it must come in that fashion.” Salmond has previously called the 2003 invasion of Iraq an “illegal war.”
Britain has so far refrained from carrying out airstrikes itself. But Cameron and his allies have suggested that they might be open to direct British military intervention. Haines — whom Cameron deemed a “British hero” — was happiest when helping people in need in some of the world’s most dangerous locations, according to his family.
The video of Haines’s killing, which was first reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, was released just days after President Obama gave a prime-time speech from the White House in which he described an open-ended campaign to combat the Islamic State both in Iraq and in Syria. When he was abducted in March 2013 near the Atmeh refugee camp along the Turkish border in the Syrian province of Idlib, he was working for the French aid agency ACTED. In a statement, ACTED singled out his “generosity, commitment, and his professionalism.”
The president said the United States would work in concert with “a broad coalition” of allies, including Britain. The news of Haines’s abduction was kept quiet until this month, when he was seen at the end of a video showing the killing of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff.
Obama released a statement late Saturday condemning Haines’s killing: “Our hearts go out to the family of Mr. Haines and to the people of the United Kingdom. The United States stands shoulder to shoulder tonight with our close friend and ally in grief and resolve.” Mike Haines, David Haines’s brother, described him as “just another bloke” who “was and is loved by all his family and will be missed terribly.”
The Islamic State has released two previous videos showing the execution of the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff. The group threatened to kill Haines at the end of the Sotloff video, which was released less than two weeks ago. “He was, in the right mood, the life and soul of the party and on other times the most stubborn irritating pain in the ass,” Mike said in a statement released to the Foreign Office.
On Friday, Haines’s family urged his captors to contact them. Mike Haines said his brother had been an aircraft engineer with the Royal Air Force and, after leaving the service, had been energized by a new career working for aid groups in conflict zones, including South Sudan, Libya and Syria.
“We have sent messages to you to which we have not received a reply,” the family statement said. “We are asking those holding David to make contact with us.” “David was most alive and enthusiastic in his humanitarian roles,” Mike 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.”
Haines was abducted in March 2013 near the Atmeh refugee camp along the Turkish border in the Syrian province of Idlib. He was a veteran of the Royal Air Force, and since leaving the armed forces he had used his security expertise to work for aid agencies in conflict zones. David Haines is survived by his wife, Dragana, and their 4-year-old daughter, Athea, who live in Croatia, and his teenage daughter, Bethany, who lives in Scotland.
The British newspaper the Telegraph quoted his wife, Dragana Haines, as saying last week that their 4-year-old daughter had been asking about her father every day for the past year and a half.
“He’s everything to us. He’s our life. He’s a fantastic man and father,” she told the newspaper in an account published early Sunday. “Nobody can understand how we are feeling.”
Haines’s brother, Mike Haines, released a statement early Sunday saying David Haines “was and is loved by all his family and will be missed terribly.”
Mike Haines said his brother had been an aircraft engineer with the Royal Air Force, and after leaving, had been energized by a new career working for aid groups in conflict zones.
“David was most alive and enthusiastic in his humanitarian roles,” said the statement, which was released via the British Foreign Office. “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.”