A LONDON MAN has told Channel 4 News that a child featured in the latest Islamic State propaganda video is his grandson.
The clip features a young boy who sends a warning to the UK in English spoken with a British accent. At the end of the undated video, he says that “we are going to go kill the kafir (non-believers) over there”.
The footage also shows the killing of five men Islamic State claims worked with the international coalition fighting them in Iraq and Syria.
Speaking to the UK broadcaster, Sunday Dare said he had seen an image of his grandson Isa from the video.
“He’s my grandson. I can’t disown him. I know him very well,” he said.
He’s propaganda. They are just using a small boy. They are just using him as a shield.
Channel 4 News reports that the boy’s mother Grace Dare left Britain and married a Swedish jihadi, who has since been killed. The couple, along with the child, featured in a report broadcast in 2013.
The child’s identity has not been verified, but the toddler who appeared in the 2013 video would be around the same age as the child in the latest footage.
Sunday Dare said his daughter should return to the UK to “face the music”.
He had reported her to police three times before she left for Syria, he said – telling them “she’s behaving in a very funny way”.
He said the police had told him “she’s free” and over 18.
Speaking earlier, British Prime Minister David Cameron described the video as “desperate stuff from an organisation that really does do the most utterly despicable and ghastly acts”.
This is an organisation that’s losing territory… increasingly losing anybody’s sympathy, and this again shows what an appalling organisation we’re up against.
English-speaking fighter
In the footage, an IS fighter mocks Cameron for challenging IS, and calls him an “imbecile”.
“This is a message to David Cameron,” says one of the gunmen, speaking in a British accent.
Britain’s Foreign Office issued a short statement saying: “We are aware of the video and are examining the content.”
The prime minister said Islamic State was motivated by a hatred for Britain’s “tolerant, democratic, multi-faith” values and that the jihadists would not succeed in the long term.
“Britain will never be cowed by this sort of terrorism. Our values are so much stronger than theirs,” he said.
It may take a very long time but they will be defeated.
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