Islamic State murderer and propagandist ‘Jihadi John’ has issued a graphic warning of coming slaughter on the streets of the West in the new YouTube video that features the beheading of at least nineteen men, including former American soldier Peter Kassig.
In a short speech delivered as he stands among a group of up to eighteen other terrorists, knives in hand and victims at their feet, the British killer known in the West as ‘Jihadi John’ but known locally as Abu Abdullah al-Britani called President Obama the “dog of Rome” and David Cameron his “puppet”. The video, which even for the Islamic State was unusually gruesome then showed al-Britani giving the kill order to his fellow jihadists, who then used serrated knives to saw off the heads of their captives, said to the Syrian army and air force pilots.
Speaking to the camera, al-Britani said: “To Obama, the dog of Rome, today we are slaughtering the soldiers of Bashar, and tomorrow we will slaughter your soldiers, and with Allah’s permission, we will break this final and last crusade, and the Islamic state will soon, like your puppet David Cameron said, will begin to slaughter your people on your streets”.
His words will not ring hollow to many in the West, who have recently witnessed the murder by Islamist agents on the streets of Western cities of Soldiers such as Drummer Lee Rigby and Corporal Nathan Cirillo.
The make-up of the murder squad was of a distinctly international nature, deliberately chosen to gain maximum effect as a recruiting tool with the killers being picked from ISIS members from all over the world. At least two Britons have been identified in the squad, as have French and German passport holders.
The video itself played heavily upon the favoured ISIS narrative of epic conflict between the Christian West and Islamic East, referring constantly to “crusaders” and “cross worshippers”. A 3D-graphic map of the world shows the ‘white’ Islamic State spreading over the Middle East, North Africa, through India to China, and West through Italy and Spain, and finally the Americas.
As the Islamic State is shown spreading over the Middle East and North Africa, ISIS leader al-Baghdadi, who is believed to have been badly injured in a recent air strike tells listeners: “We give you good news, by announcing the expansion of the Islamic State to new lands”.
The final segment of the film shows al-Britani standing over the severed head of American soldier and aid worker Peter Kassig, in a shot designed to goad Western forces into action. Filmed in Dabiq, a town central to the core myths surrounding the Islamic State, al-Britani accuses America of continuing to occupy Iraq despite an official withdrawal with “hidden forces”.
ISIS believes a great battle will occur in the town of Dabiq, and it will be there they will triumph over the West. Alluding to this, while standing on a hill overlooking the town with the head of Kassig, al-Britaini says: “and here we are, burying the first American crusader in Dabiq, eagerly waiting for the remainder of your armies to arrive”.