British aid worker David Haines appears to have been executed by ISIS militants

British aid worker David Haines
appears to have been executed by ISIS
militants, according to a video posted Saturday
to a website associated with the group, making
him the third Western captive to be killed by
the Islamist extremist group in recent weeks.
The ISIS video post showing Haines’ apparent
beheading called his execution “a message to
the allies of America.”
It is produced very similarly to the videos that
showed the executions of American journalists
James Foley and Steven Sotloff, the last of
which included Haines and the threat that he’d
be killed next.
The new video pictures a masked ISIS militant
placing his hand on another captive, whom he
identified as Alan Henning, a British citizen.
When contacted by CNN
, the British Foreign
Office said that it was analyzing the video.
News of the apparent gruesome killing came
the same day that Haines’ family released a
brief message to his captors through the British
Foreign Office.
In it, the family says, “We have sent messages
to you to which we have not received a reply.
We are asking those holding David to make
contact with us.”
A logistics and security manager for the Paris-
based Agency for Technical Cooperation and
Development, a nongovernmental humanitarian
agency, the 44-year-old Haines was abducted
in March 2013 near a refugee camp in Atmeh,
Syria.
At that time, Haines was working to arrange for
the delivery of humanitarian aid to people
staying at the camp. He had previously worked
on aid operations for victims of conflict in the
Balkans, African and other parts of the Middle
East, according to an ACTED spokesman.
Haines’ face became known to the world in the
ISIS video, released September 2, in which he
looks forward and kneels as a masked ISIS
militant stands behind him.
The militant says in that video, “We take this
opportunity to warn those governments who’ve
entered this evil alliance of America against the
Islamic State to back off and leave our people
alone.”
British officials said after the video’s release
that they had sent troops to try to rescue an
unidentified British citizen “some time ago,” but
failed. They released no other details.
ISIS, which also calls itself the Islamic State,
has killed thousands in Syria and Iraq as it
presses a military campaign to establish itself
as an Islamic caliphate. Witnesses report mass
killings, beheadings and crucifixions.
The United States has been using airstrikes to
support Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling ISIS,
and is working to build a coalition to broaden
the effort against ISIS. U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry was in Egypt Saturday seeking that
country’s help in the fight.