ISIS Says It Executed David Cawthorne Haines, British Aid Worker

By RUKMINI CALLIMACHISEPT.

David Cawthorne Haines Credit Reuters

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria released a video on Saturday that showed the beheading of a British citizen, David Cawthorne Haines, an aid worker.

Mr. Haines is seen kneeling on a bare hill in a landscape that appears identical to the one where two American journalists — James Foley and Steven J. Sotloff — were killed by the group in back-to-back-executions in the past month, according to the footage and a transcript released by SITE Intelligence, which tracks the terrorist group.

In the moments before his death, Mr. Haines, 44, as the two other journalists did before him, reads a script in which he blames his country’s leaders for his killing. Addressing Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, he says: “I would like to declare that I hold you, David Cameron, entirely responsible for my execution. You entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State.” He added: “Unfortunately, it is we the British public that in the end will pay the price for our Parliament’s selfish decisions.”

The killing of Mr. Haines, a father of two from Perth, Scotland, was a clear message to Britain, a key ally of the United States as it tries to build an international coalition to target the militant group, which has made major advances across Syria and northern Iraq in recent months. It also put pressure on the government of Mr. Cameron, a member of a core coalition of nations announced as NATO leaders met in Wales this month and sought to devise a strategy to address the growing threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, including plans to strengthen allies on the ground in Iraq and Syria and conduct airstrikes against the militants.

President Obama on Wednesday announced a major expansion of the military campaign against ISIS, including airstrikes against the group in Syria. The beheadings of Mr. James Foley, on Aug. 19, and Mr. Sotloff, on Sept. 2, followed the start of a campaign of airstrikes against ISIS positions in Iraq.

The group is currently holding two more British nationals, as well as two other American aid workers. Their families have asked the news media not to to disclose their names, after ISIS warned that the hostages would be killed if relatives made their identities public.

Britain and the United States are among the only nations in the world that have held to a hard-line, no-concessions policy when dealing with kidnappings by terror groups. Until earlier this year, ISIS was holding close to two dozen foreigners in the same jail where Mr. Haines was imprisoned on the outskirts of the Syrian town of Raqqa.

Mr. Haines, who has a military background, was kidnapped 19 months ago in northern Syria and was held alongside an Italian co-worker, Federico Motka. Both men worked for ACTED, a French aid group, and had traveled to Syria to try to help during the country’s civil war. Their fates diverged based on their country’s individual policies: Mr. Motka was released in May, one of 15 Europeans who were liberated from the same ISIS-run jail for a ransom, according to a person who was held alongside them and who could not be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Earlier this month, Mr. Cameron ruled out paying a ransom for Mr. Haines. “It’s a desperately difficult situation,” he told Sky News. “We don’t pay ransoms to terrorists when they kidnap our citizens,” he said, adding: “From the intelligence and other information I have seen, there is no doubt this money helps to fuel the crisis that we see in Iraq and Syria.”