The father of a British jihadi fighter has said his son ‘should be executed’ if it is him who appears in the latest brutal video from the Islamic State militants.
Ahmed Muthana, father of 20 year old Nasser who left Cardiff to fight in Syria against the Assad regime said his son “must face up to what he has done” the Daily Telegraph reports.
Mr Muthana, a retired mechanical engineer, has been shown stills of the latest execution video but says he cannot categorically confirm that his son is one of the militants who appears in the film.
There are suspicions he is one of the camouflaged Isil militants standing next to the murderer known as ‘Jihadi John’ as the extremists line up to execute Syrian soldiers. The video also announces the murder of American hostage Peter Kassig, the former US Army Ranger turned aid worker.
In a defiant statement, he said his son deserved to be executed, adding “If that’s what he has done to someone then that is what should be done to him.”
“I am like any other father.” he went on. “I am trying not to believe it is my boy, but it looks like him.”
“But I am not going to make excuses for him. He is a grown man and he must face up to what he has done.”
He distanced himself from his son’s alleged actions and said he has sympathy for the family of Mr Kassig and of the Syrian soldiers who were killed.
“What they are doing is inhuman, this is not the son I brought up. He has been got at – he has changed.”
“They are my sons and they are gone and I don’t want them back. No father wants to disown their children but I have no choice. That is the way it is.”
Nasser Muthana was due to attend university to study medicine when he left for the troubled region. He was later joined by his younger brother Aseel, aged only 17.
Their father said he had not heard directly from them since they left to fight and the only news of them came via a cousin who lived in the Yemen but who has since died.
While he said he could not be sure it was his son, he said that the image resembled Nasser, although was thinner than he had last seen him – something which usually happens to soldiers as they undertake more physical activity and may have more limited access to food.
Kassig ‘killed in bombing raid’ not executed
In an extraordinary statement by the head of the anti-ISIL group, it has been claimed that Mr Kassig was not murdered by beheading but killed in a drone attack, the Daily Mail reports.
The resistance leader adds to further speculation as to why Mr Kassig’s full body was not shown. Unlike previous sickening videos, he did not speak directly to the camera before being killed and his body was not shown after the murder.
Some sources have said that Mr Kassig, who would have received hostile environments training from his time in the US Military, could have refused to give a final speech on camera or possibly even fought back.
But speaking via Skype the head of the group ‘Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently’ claimed that Mr Kassig died on November 5th in a bombing raid.
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