Islamic State executes British aid worker, threatens another
The Islamic State posted a video Saturday of the execution of a British aid worker for what the killer said was retaliation for Britain’s decision to join the international coalition that the United States is leading to fight the radical Islamist group.
David Cawthorne Haines is the third Westerner to be murdered by the Islamic State, and his executioner appeared to be the same one as the suspected British militant who killed American freelance journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
The circumstances of Haines’ murder also were the same: He was seen kneeling in a sun-baked, desertlike setting, dressed in loose, orange-colored garments akin to surgical scrubs and flanked by his knife-wielding killer clad in black, most of the man’s face sheathed in a scarf and turban.
The British Foreign Office said in a statement that it was working to confirm the veracity of the video. But posts by British Prime Minister David Cameron on Twitter left no doubt that the British government believed the man was Haines, a father of two.
“My heart goes out to his family who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude,” Cameron wrote.
The video, like the video of Sotloff released on Sept. 2, was first detected by the SITE Intelligence Group, a private U.S. company that tracks extremist Internet chatrooms and websites. It was posted only hours after Haines’ family issued a statement through the British government pleading for the Islamic State to make contact.
The video, which ran two minutes and 21 seconds, was dubbed “A Message to the Allies of America.” It opened with a recording of Cameron issuing a statement on his government’s role in the U.S.-led effort to bolster Iraqi forces and the Kurdish militia against the offensive launched by the Islamic State in northern Iraq in mid-June.
The video then showed the executioner standing beside Haines, 44, a former British soldier-turned-humanitarian worker who disappeared in Syria in March 2013, three days after crossing the border on a humanitarian mission for a French aid group, ACTED. He was taken with an Italian co-worker, Frederico Motka, who was among 15 European hostages released earlier this year, reportedly after their governments paid ransoms.
Haines recited a statement blaming Cameron for his death for failing to heed an Islamic State warning to quit the U.S.-led coalition.
“My name is David Cawthorne Haines. I would like to declare that I hold you, David Cameron, entirely responsible for my execution,” Haines said. “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.”
The executioner, speaking in a British accent similar to that of the killer of Foley and Sotloff, said that the victim was paying the price for Cameron’s decision to provide arms to the Kurdish militia, known as the Peshmerga.
“Ironically, he has spent a decade of his life serving under the same Royal Air Force that is responsible for delivering those arms,” the executioner said. “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. And playing the role of the obedient lapdog, Cameron, will only drag you and your people into another bloody and unwinnable war.”
Next victim identified
The video ended with the executioner placing his hand on the shoulder of a man he identified as another British citizen, Alan Henning. “If you, Cameron, insist on fighting the Islamic State, then you, like your master, Obama, will have the blood of your people on your hands,” he said.
Haines’ disappearance was kept secret until he was seen kneeling at the end of the video of Sotloff’s slaying, with the executioner promising that Haines would be the next killed if Cameron didn’t pull out of the U.S.-led coalition.
The video was posted just three days after President Obama announced that he was building an international coalition to “destroy” the Islamic State and was prepared to extend U.S. airstrikes against the group from Iraq into its sanctuaries in civil war-torn Syria.
The British government has said that it will not join the United States in launching airstrikes into Syria.
In his posts on Twitter, Cameron called Haines’ murder an “act of pure evil” and vowed to “do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes.”
In a statement, Obama said the United States stands shoulder to shoulder with Britain in “grief and resolve.” The president said the U.S. will work with Britain and a broad coalition of nations to bring to justice those who committed what he calls an “outrageous act.”
Repeating a message from his Wednesday night address laying out a strategy for attacking the Islamic State group, Obama said the coalition will degrade and destroy the threat the extremists pose to people around the world.
Once an affiliate of al-Qaida, the Islamic State is fighting the regime of Bashar Assad as well as other rebel groups.
This story was originally published September 13, 2014 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Islamic State executes British aid worker, threatens another."