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Islamic State Releases Video of Execution of Alan Henning, British Aid Worker ISIS Releases Video of Execution of British Aid Worker
(about 4 hours later)
The Islamic State has released another video of a beheading — this one of a middle-aged British aid worker, Alan Henning, who was abducted last year from the ambulance he had driven into Syria to offer lifesaving help. Moved by the plight of the Syrian people, a middle-aged taxi driver from Manchester, England, stood on street corners to raise money for an ambulance. Last December, the man, Alan Henning, skipped Christmas with his family to become the sole non-Muslim on an aid convoy traveling to northern Syria, only to be abducted within 30 minutes of crossing into the war-ravaged country.
As in the previous three execution videos circulated by the extremist group, the victim is shown kneeling in a rocky, desert landscape and is forced to read a script blaming his county’s actions for his death. After panning over his dead body, the executioner shows an American aid worker and former Army Ranger, Peter Kassig, 26, and identifies him as the next to be killed. On Friday, the extremist group calling itself the Islamic State released a graphic video of his beheading.
The terrorist group which controls large swaths of Syria and neighboring Iraq has now executed four Western hostages, including two Americans and two Britons — starting with the American freelance journalist James Foley, who was beheaded in August. Besides Mr. Kassig, they are also holding a 26-year-old American woman and John Cantlie, a British journalist. And there are unconfirmed reports that they have also kidnapped several Italian aid workers as well as a woman from New Zealand. The militants killed the 47-year-old aid worker over the protests of leading Muslim clerics — including one of the top Qaeda theorists — making it clear that the Islamic State is so extreme it cannot be reined in even by the men who helped shape the ideology of Osama bin Laden’s terrorist organization.
“Hi, I am Alan Henning,” the aid worker is forced to say in the moments before his death. “Because of our Parliament’s decision to attack the Islamic State, I — as a member of the British public — will now pay the price for that decision,” he says in the one minute, 11 second clip, which was uploaded to YouTube on Friday afternoon.“Hi, I am Alan Henning,” the aid worker is forced to say in the moments before his death. “Because of our Parliament’s decision to attack the Islamic State, I — as a member of the British public — will now pay the price for that decision,” he says in the one minute, 11 second clip, which was uploaded to YouTube on Friday afternoon.
After killing Mr. Henning, who was 47, a masked jihadist is shown holding Mr. Kassig by the scruff of his neck: “Obama, you have started your air bombardment in Sham which keeps on striking our people. It is only right that we continue to strike the necks of your people,” he says, using a name for a region that includes Syria, before the screen goes black. He is shown wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling in a rocky landscape, in the same pose as the three other Western hostages killed in the same manner in roughly two-week intervals since August.
A former taxi driver from Greater Manchester, Mr. Henning stood on street corners for months to raise funds to buy an ambulance, according to friends and colleagues. After the camera pans over the dead body, the black-clad executioner shows a 26-year-old man whom the militants identify as their next victim: an American aid worker, Peter Kassig, a former Army Ranger, who founded an organization that provides medical care in Syria, according to a statement from his family.
His plan was to carry aid on behalf of Aid4Syria, a British charity. He skipped Christmas with his family to be the only non-Muslim on an aid convoy traveling to northern Syria, and was abducted last December within 30 minutes of crossing into the troubled, war-scarred country. Holding him by the scruff of his neck, the masked fighter declares: “Obama, you have started your air bombardment in Sham which keeps on striking our people. It is only right that we continue to strike the necks of your people,” using a name for a region that includes Syria.
Majid Freeman, 26, who was on the convoy with Mr. Henning when he was kidnapped, told the BBC that on Dec. 26, shortly after arriving in a compound in Al-Dana, a town a few miles from the Turkish border, masked gunmen rushed in. “They called all of us out, they asked our dates of birth, they tried to find out if we were spies,” he said. “They came to the conclusion that Gadget may have been a spy, reason being he had a chip in his passport,” he said, referring to Mr. Henning by his nickname. Two weeks ago, residents of Raqqa, in northern Syria — which is where the hostages were believed to be held for most of this year — said they saw fighters from the Islamic State driving a captive in an orange uniform, believed to be Mr. Henning, to a hill. It is the same place where the first hostage, the American journalist James Foley, was executed, they said.
Even leading Al Qaeda ideologues came out in defense of Mr. Henning, saying it was un-Islamic to kill a humanitarian worker. One of the cars was “carrying a big TV camera,” said a member of an underground activist group, who declined to be identified out of fears for his safety
If the person beheaded on Sept. 20 was indeed Mr. Henning, it indicates the terrorist group is carrying out its executions weeks before releasing the videos, timing their release for maximum effect. In Mr. Henning’s case, they appear to have waited until after the start of Britain’s airstrikes on the group.