The Daesh radical group released a new video, in which a masked man with a British accent threatens Britain and its Prime Minister David Cameron and militants purportedly execute five purported British spies.
It is unclear if the executions in the video are authentic. Daesh generally makes a point of staging graphic executions, but the new video has extensive editing in its execution portion. One man, who falls back after being shot in the back of the head is later shown lying face-down. While falling back, what appears to be blood is poured on his shirt from outside the shot in a pattern not resembling his movements.
The man does not appear to be Jihadi John, earlier said to be killed by a US drone strike. The five men purported to be British spies only speak Arabic in the video. The group previously released a video and a sung poem (nasheed), in which it similarly threatened Russia and President Vladimir Putin with invasion.
"We will continue to wage jihad, break borders, and one day invade your land, where we will rule by the Sharia," the Daesh spokesman said in the video.
The man in the video also called David Cameron an "imbecile" and a "slave of the White House." Daesh reportedly increased production of propaganda videos after losing the town of Ramadi to the Iraqi army and militias.
"But this time, when you lose, your children will inherit your defeat and remember you as the fools who thought they could fight the Islamic State," the spokesman added.
The video end with a short trailer for another video which Daesh promises to is "coming soon." In the clip, a young child with a British accent appears to say "We will kill the [infidels] over there."
Reaction to Gruesome Video
Shiraz Maher, senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization at Kings College London told the BBC it was not unusual for a British national to front propaganda videos directed at the UK.
"In this context you would expect to see a British fighter fronting the video, which we have seen before. The most surprising thing is the young child. Whether that's a child that's been taken from Britain [or not, we don't know]. He does speak in English, but that's no proof he's from the UK. It's very hard to make out what he says."
"The child for sure will be identified relatively quickly because it's inconceivable to me — given his age — that he would have been born out there. He would have been taken over [there], so somebody will recognize the child and be able to tell us who he is, because he wasn't wearing a balaclava or mask," said Maher.
Emwazi was identified as the Kuwaiti-born British citizen who fronted a series of beheading videos in 2014 and 2015. The British authorities said he had been killed by a drone strike in November 2015.
Abu al-Furat, a member of a Raqqa-based group which opposes Daesh, told the BBC they doubted the killed men were spying for Britain. "Daesh has been harmed very much after the death of some British citizens who are fighting with Daesh. And in this video, the executor is trying to copy John [Emwazi]. They want to say that if John died, there are others that can do this job," he said.
