ISIS Has Released a New Video Showing the Paris Attackers in Other Atrocities
ISIS, the terrorist group responsible for the Nov. 13 massacre in Paris that left 130, released a video Sunday that purportedly shows many of the perpetrators of that attack involved in other atrocities, including suspected Paris ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud.
The video, which shows fighters delivering statements into the camera in French with mostly Arabic translations shows the group's trademark beheadings carried out by Paris attackers as well as threats of future violence — this time against targets in the United Kingdom. The video does not contain any new footage of the Paris attack.
The roughly 17-minute video entitled, "Kill Them Wherever You Find Them," was released by the group's propaganda arm Al-Hayat Media Center and first brought to widespread public attention after being picked up by SITE, which patrols for content on jihadi websites.
"If you send the fighter planes to bomb Muslims, know that the Islamic State will send fighters thirsty for the blood of misbelievers, fighters who will stop at nothing," said a fighter identified as Abu Qital Al-Faransi. Al-Faransi is believed to have participated in the ISIS attack on Paris' Bataclan theater, which claimed the largest number of victims of the massacre.
If confirmed as authentic, the video will put to bed any lingering doubts about ISIS' capability to coordinate complicated attacks a continent away from their stronghold in Raqqa, Syria.
The video, which makes a direct threat to English Prime Minister David Cameron, prompted a quick response from the British government.
"We are currently examining this latest Daesh propaganda video — another desperate move from an appalling terrorist group that is clearly in decline," a government spokesman told the Guardian.
French President François Hollande responded in kind, saying, "No threat will give France pause in what it must do against terrorist. And if I have taken steps to extend the state of emergency, it is because I am aware of the threat and that we will not concede."
The true health of the Islamic State remains mysterious. Last month ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi reportedly released a rare message rallying the faithful and acknowledging the considerable strain his organization has been under.
"If we are killed and the wounds are numerous and the problems amassed against us and the hardships are great, then it is no surprise either," he said during the 24-minute address.
The group has undergone a number of prominent setbacks in recent weeks. Last month the city of Ramadi was recaptured by Iraqi forces, while the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed group and one of the many jockeying for power in the region, is reportedly within striking distance of the ISIS headquarters in Raqqa. Bombing from an increasingly united international coalition remains constant and relentless.
Despite these pressures, the group and its allies have continued to orchestrate ever-more sophisticated attacks around the world stretching beyond Paris and San Bernardino, California, into places like Turkey, Nigeria and Lebanon. ISIS has also proved adept at franchising their operation with an increasingly robust stronghold taking root in Libya.
Watch the full video here. (Warning: Graphic content.)
