A new ISIS propaganda video shows three Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, evidently captured in the Nineveh province of Iraq, beheaded with knives before a large crowd of onlookers, some of them small children.
The UK Daily Mail reports that the video includes a speech from an ISIS fighter “promising greater attacks on the Kurds if their government does not stand down in their fight against the extremist group.”
The video includes flourishes typical of the terrorist group. The prisoners are shown being led to the site their execution, clad in orange jumpsuits, and are made to kneel while the cameramen shoot close-ups from various angles. The prisoners are made to state their names and rank in the Kurdish peshmerga before the knives come out. Close-ups of the beheaded corpses are included at the end of the video.
According to the International Business Times, the videotaped threat is timed to coincide with the Kurdish new year celebration of Newroz, and the ISIS militant hosting the video is speaking the Kurdish dialect of Sorani when he says, “To the Muslim Kurdish people: know that our war is not with you, rather it is with those who ventured into an alliance with the Safavids and crusaders to wage war on the Muslims.”
“We warned you before that for every rocket you fire on those under the care of the Islamic State, you will kill one of your prisoners with your own hands,” adds another ISIS fighter.
The entire video appears below. WARNING: Extremely Graphic Content: Unlike many ISIS terror films, it does not fade to black or cut away when the beheadings are performed. The early parts of the video, which are evidently meant to show the results of coalition bombing against ISIS-occupied cities, are fairly gruesome as well.