David Cameron says people should watch Isis execution video
The Prime Minister says viewing some of the footage will remind the public ‘what a truly ghastly, murderous organisation we’re up against’
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Your support makes all the difference.David Cameron has said he is “happy” for members of the public to view parts of a new execution video released by the Isis militant group as a reminder of how “ghastly” the organisation is.
The graphic video shows masked gunmen, including a man suspected by British authorities to be former Londoner Siddhartha Dhar, shooting at point blank range five men accused of spying against Isis.
A militant speaking in the video taunts the Prime Minister directly, calling him an “imbecile” for launching air strikes against Isis in Syria and threatening to “wage jihad” against the UK.
The video includes the moment the alleged “spies” are shot, as well as depicting their bodies lying on the ground. At the end of the 10 and a half minute film, a young child thought to be the son of a British woman is shown in an apparent trailer for a further video.
Speaking to LBC radio, Mr Cameron said he had watched “part” of the video and brushed off the personal taunts in it as the sort of thing he has “seen before”.
He said it was up to broadcasters’ own judgement whether or not they chose to show the video, but said that “having seen it myself, I can say it just repels people”.
“Any normal person watching that video will realise that describing these people as a death cult and as truly repulsive is utterly fair comment and so I don’t mind people seeing, within limits, a little bit of this just to remind them about what a truly ghastly, murderous organisation we’re up against,” he said.
Downing Street earlier rejected Isis’s claims the men killed in the video were spying for the UK, dismissing the footage as a “propaganda tool”.
Security officials are reported to have taken the highly unusual step of telling media outlets the men were not British informants – the Ministry of Defence has a policy of neither confirming nor denying such claims.
Experts yesterday described the video in the context of Isis’s recent losses on the battlefield in Iraq, and Mr Cameron told LBC it showed “absolutely desperate tactics from an organisation that is clearly now on the back foot”.
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