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A beheading video is a video which depicts a live murder in which a hostage or victim is shown to be graphically decapitated, or the head is displayed in the aftermath. Such videos are typically distributed mostly through the Internet, and are often employed by groups seeking to instill shock or terror into a population. Although beheading has been a widely employed public execution method since the ancient Greeks and Romans, videos of this type only began to arise in 2002 with the beheading of Daniel Pearl and the growth of the Internet in the Information Age, which allowed groups to anonymously publish these videos for public consumption. The beheadings shown in these videos are usually not performed in a "classical" method — decapitating a victim quickly with a blow from a sword or axe — but by the relatively slow and torturous process of slicing and sawing the victim's neck, while still alive, with a knife.
Rukmini Maria Callimachi is a Romanian-born American journalist. She currently works for The New York Times. She had been a Pulitzer Prize finalist four times. She hosted the New York Times podcast Caliphate, for which won a Peabody Award, but the Times returned the award after an investigation cast doubt on a significant portion of the podcast.
John Henry Cantlie was a British war photographer and correspondent last seen alive in 2016 when he was held hostage by Islamic State. Cantlie was abducted by IS in Syria along with the later executed American journalist James Foley in November 2012. Previously, he had been kidnapped in Syria alongside Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans in July 2012, but was rescued a week later. Between 2014 and 2016, while held in IS captivity, Cantlie repeatedly appeared narrating a series of their propaganda videos from Syria and Iraq.
James Wright Foley was an American journalist and video reporter. While working as a freelance war correspondent during the Syrian Civil War, he was abducted on November 22, 2012, in northwestern Syria. He was murdered by decapitation in August 2014 purportedly as a response to American airstrikes in Iraq, thus becoming the first American citizen executed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Steven Joel Sotloff was an American-Israeli journalist. In August 2013, he was kidnapped in Aleppo, Syria, and held captive by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). On September 2, 2014, ISIS released a beheading video, showing one of its members beheading Sotloff. Following Sotloff's beheading, U.S. President Barack Obama stated that the United States would take action to "degrade and destroy" ISIS. President Obama also signed an Executive Order dated June 24, 2015, in the presence of the Sotloff family and other hostage families, overhauling how the U.S. handles American hostages held abroad by groups such as ISIS.
Mohammed Emwazi was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin seen in several videos produced by the Islamist extremist group Islamic State (IS) showing the beheadings of a number of captives in 2014 and 2015. A group of his hostages nicknamed him "John" since he was part of a four-person terrorist cell with English accents whom they called 'The Beatles'; the press later began calling him "Jihadi John".
Beginning in 2014, a number of people from various countries were beheaded by the Islamic State (IS), a radical Sunni Jihadist group operating in Iraq and Syria as well as elsewhere. In January 2014, a copy of an IS penal code surfaced describing the penalties it enforces in areas under its control, including multiple beheadings. Beheading videos have been frequently posted by IS members to social media. Several of the recorded beheadings were conducted by Mohammed Emwazi, whom the media referred to as "Jihadi John" before his identification. The beheadings received wide coverage around the world and attracted international condemnation. Political scientist Max Abrahms posited that IS may be using well-publicized beheadings as a means of differentiating itself from Al-Qaeda in Iraq, and identifying itself with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the al-Qaeda member who beheaded Daniel Pearl. The publicised beheadings represent a small proportion of a larger number of total people killed following capture by IS.
Al-Hayat Media Center is a media wing of the Islamic State. It was established in mid-2014 and targets international (non-Arabic) audiences as opposed to their other Arabic-focused media wings and produces material, mostly Nasheeds, in English, German, Russian, Urdu, Indonesian, Turkish, Bengali, Chinese, Bosnian, Kurdish, Uyghur, and French.
The Islamic State (IS) had its core in Iraq and Syria from 2013 to 2017 and 2019 respectively, where the proto-state controlled significant swathes of urban, rural, and desert territory, mainly in the Mesopotamian region. Today the group controls scattered pockets of land in the area, as well as territory or insurgent cells in other areas, notably Afghanistan, West Africa, the Sahara, Somalia, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. As of 2023, large swathes of Mali have fallen under IS control.
The condition of human rights in the territory controlled by the Islamic State (IS) is considered to be among the worst in the world. The Islamic State's policies included acts of genocide, torture and slavery. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) stated in November 2014 that the Islamic State "seeks to subjugate civilians under its control and dominate every aspect of their lives through terror, indoctrination, and the provision of services to those who obey". Many Islamic State actions of extreme criminality, terror, recruitment and other activities have been documented in the Middle East.
Executions by ISIS refers here to killing by beheading, immolation, shooting, or other means of soldiers and civilians by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). ISIL has released a number of propaganda/publicity videos of beheadings or shootings of captives. Houtat Sulūk is reported to be a mass grave.
Kayla Jean Mueller was an American human rights activist and humanitarian aid worker from Prescott, Arizona, United States. She was taken captive in August 2013 in Aleppo, Syria, after leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital. Media reported that a 26-year-old American aid worker was being held by ISIS without naming her, at her family's request. In 2015, she was killed in uncertain circumstances. The operation that killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was named Operation Kayla Mueller, in her honor.
Amaq News Agency is a news outlet linked to the Islamic State (IS). Amaq is often the "first point of publication for claims of responsibility" for terrorist attacks in Western countries by the Islamic State. In March 2019, Amaq News Agency was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Department of State.
Thaher Salim Mohammad Al-Shahiri known by his nom de guerre Abul-Hasan al-Muhajir was the kunya used by the second official spokesman of the Islamic State from 5 December 2016 until 27 October 2019, when he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in northwest Syria. He was a Saudi national. He was replaced by Abu Hamza Al-Qurashi.
Shehroze Chaudhry is a Canadian who gained international attention under the pseudonym Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi as the subject of Caliphate, a podcast hosted by Rukmini Callimachi of The New York Times. He had claimed that in 2014, he emptied his bank account, traveled to Syria, and joined the terrorist group Islamic State (IS), where he remained until 2016. In the wake of the podcast's release, Conservative MPs called on the government to find and arrest al-Kanadi amid rumours that he had returned to Canada.
The August 15, 2018, Turkish airstrikes on Sinjar were two airstrikes on İsmail Özden, a leading member of the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ). Four others were killed in the airstrike.
Hoda Muthana is a U.S.-born Yemeni woman who emigrated from the United States to Syria to join ISIS in November 2014. She surrendered in January 2019 to coalition forces fighting ISIS in Syria and has been denied access back to the United States after a U.S. court ruling rejected her claim to American citizenship. When she was born, her father was a Yemeni diplomat, making her ineligible for American citizenship by birth.
Kimberly Gwen Polman is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen, who travelled to ISIS occupied territory in 2015, and married an Islamic militant she had befriended online. In 2019, after she surrendered to forces allied to the United States, Polman told reporters she deeply regretted her actions.
Caliphate is a narrative podcast published by The New York Times in 2018 which covers the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). It was hosted by reporter Rukmini Callimachi. The central figure of the podcast was Pakistani-Canadian Shehroze Chaudhry, who described in detail atrocities he claimed to have committed in Syria for ISIL. Concerns were raised that his story was a fabrication or a grave misrepresentation, and in 2020 Chaudhry was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's O Division Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (OINSET) for lying about participating in terrorist activities. Following his arrest, The New York Times admitted to a severe editorial failing and retracted Chaudry's story.
References
- ↑ ISIS Media Figure and Foreign Fighter Charged with Conspiring
- ↑ Ian Austen (2019-02-22). "They Left Canada for ISIS. Should They Be Allowed Home?". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2019-02-23. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
The ISIS narrator, Mohammed Khalifa, said: 'I do not regret what I did, I stand by the Islamic State.' He made that very clear.
- ↑ Stewart Bell (2019-02-17). "Canadian captured in Syria admits to role in gruesome ISIS execution videos". Global News . Archived from the original on 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
'Our sources in YPG confirmed that he is the narrator of both FoW [Flames of War] videos,' the group said.
- ↑ Stewart Bell (2018-10-16). "Narrator of ISIS execution video is Canadian, says captured Mississauga ISIS member". Global News . Archived from the original on 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
But the statement supports speculation that a Canadian has been narrating ISIS English-language recruitment videos and claims of responsibility for some of its deadliest attacks.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Rukmini Callimachi (2019-02-17). "The English Voice of ISIS Comes Out of the Shadows". The New York Times . Hasaki, Syria. Archived from the original on 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2019-02-24.
Speaking fluent English with a North American accent, the man would go on to narrate countless other videos and radio broadcasts by the Islamic State, serving as the terrorist group's faceless evangelist to Americans and other English speakers seeking to learn about its toxic ideology. Now a 35-year-old Canadian citizen, who studied at a college in Toronto and once worked in information technology at a company contracted by IBM, says he is the anonymous narrator.
- ↑ "'Leading figure' in IS recruitment videos sentenced to life in prison in US". Sky News. 29 July 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
- ↑ Kilander, Gustaf (2 October 2021). "Isis terrorist behind footage of journalist James Foley's beheading flown to US for trial". The Independent .
- ↑ "English-speaking narrator of ISIS propaganda videos charged in the US". Sky News . 3 October 2021.
- ↑ "Leading ISIS Media Figure and Foreign Fighter Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Provide Material Support to a Terrorist Organization, Resulting in Death". US Department of Justice. 10 December 2021.
- ↑ Rami Ayyub (29 July 2022). "U.S. judge gives Canadian man life in prison for aiding Islamic State". Reuters . Retrieved 29 July 2022.