Group releases video it says shows death of David Haines, weeks after killing US hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff |
The Islamic State group has released what it claims to be the death of British hostage David Haines.
Stills of the video, released on the internet on late on Saturday, shows Haines, 44, being held in the desert by a masked man. The release of the video comes comes after the group murdered James Foley and Steven Sotloff, both American journalists, in a similar manner. The masked man in the latest video states Haines was killed because the UK’s prime minister, David Cameron, had promised to arm Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Iraq against the Islamic State fighters. “This British man has to pay the price for your promise, Cameron, to arm the Peshmerga against the Islamic State.” Haines, a 44-year-old from Perth in Scotland, was kidnapped last year while working for the French agency At the end of the video, another hostage was shown and the masked man said he would be killed if Cameron continued to support the fight against the Islamic State group. The British foreign office said it was working urgently to verify the contents of the video. “If true, this is another disgusting murder. We are offering the family every support possible; they ask to be left alone at this time,” a spokesman said. |