Isis video offers proof that Europe’s most-wanted man is also being hunted by jihadists

Europe’s most-wanted man Salah Abdeslam, the missing Paris jihadist, has become a “non-person” for Isis.

Twice in the space of a week, Isis propaganda publications have glorified nine of the 10 terrorists who murdered 130 people in the Paris area on 13 November.

On both occasions, Abdeslam, 26, who returned to Brussels without completing his suicide mission, was omitted in from the “roll of honour”.

In an ultra-violent propaganda video, placed on line on Sunday night, seven of the 10 Paris attackers are shown executing prisoners in the desert an Isis-controlled part of Syria or Iraq before they left for France. Two others, including Salah’s brother Brahim, are also featured.

The video goes on to threaten further attacks in Britain, Italy and on the Champs Elysées in Paris. The 17 minute film, mostly voiced over in French, ends with a terrorist holding a severed head against the backround of David Cameron speaking in the House of Commons. A voice says in English that all “unbelievers” will be “a target for our swords”.

The film also includes a mock execution of thee French president, François Hollande.

An Isis magazine published last week gave hero-worshipping name and face checks to nine of the Paris attackers. In both magazine and video, there was no mention of Salah Abdeslam, one of the organisers of the attacks who fled back to Belgium the next morning.

Some French and Belgian investigators believe that Abdeslam refused to carry out a suicide bombing and is, therefore, as much on the run from Isis as from Europe’s police forces. His omission from both the Isis magazine and video support this interpretation of events.

In the video, seven of the Paris attackers are introduced one by one, or in pairs, in a macabre imitation of the presentation of footballers before a televised game. They are then shown beheading or slashing the throats of prisoners.

Ismaël Omar Mostefaï, 20, a French national, one of the three gunmen who murdered 90 people in the Batacan concert hall on 13 November, says: “Know that we have been ordered by the emir of the believers to kill you wherever you are.”

Bilal Hadfi, also 20, a Franco-Belgian who blew himself up at the Stade de France north of Paris, is seen beheading a prisoner. The two unidentified men carrying fae Syrian passports who also attacked the football stadium are described in the video as “Iraqis”.

If authentic, the video confirms suspicions that all, or almost all, of the Paris attackers had spent time in the Isisi-controlled zone of Syria and Iraq.

Downing Street said that it was studying the video. A spokeswoman suggested that its appearance so long after the Paris slaughter was a sign of desperation.

“We are in the process of examining this latest propaganda video, which is another move from an appalling terrorist group that is clearly in decline and in retreat,” she said.

President François Hollande, speaking during a visit to India, said the video – including his own mock execution – “would not shake France’s determination…to defend our country and our freedom”.

He said the continuings Isis threat justified his decision – controversial on the Left in France – to seek a three month extension of the state of emergency declared after the 13 November murders.