A video purporting to show the beheading of British hostage Alan Henning has been released by Islamic State militants. The Salford taxi driver was delivering aid to Syria in December when he was kidnapped then held hostage by IS. IS had threatened to kill the 47-year-old in a video showing the killing of Briton David Haines last month.
The UK Foreign Office said it was trying to verify the video, and if true it was a "further disgusting murder". On Tuesday, Mr Henning's wife Barbara appealed for his release, saying: "He is innocent." IS has previously released videos showing the apparent beheadings of two US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and Briton Mr Haines. The video released on Friday is yet to be verified, but it appears to show Mr Henning kneeling beside a militant, dressed in black, in a desert setting. The footage ends with an IS fighter threatening a man they identify as an American.
'Plea for mercy' The UK Foreign
Office said in a statement: "We are aware of the video and are working urgently to verify the contents.
"If true, this is a further disgusting murder. "We are offering the family every support possible; they ask to be left alone at this time." Earlier this week Mrs Henning had asked for "mercy" for her husband, saying his family was continuing their attempts to communicate with the group. She also she had received an audio message of her husband pleading for his life. "Muslims across the globe continue to question Islamic State over Alan's fate," she said. Mrs Henning had said some people thought her husband was in the wrong place at the wrong time, but she said: "He was in the right place doing the right thing."
She said her family was "at a loss" as to why IS leaders could not "open their hearts and minds to the truth about Alan's humanitarian motives for going to Syria". Last month, two high-profile imams in the UK made a direct appeal to IS to release Mr Henning.
Holding him captive is "totally haram [forbidden]" under Islamic law, the clerics said. Earlier on Friday, the father of another hostage, British journalist John Cantlie, appealed for him to be released "to those he loves and who love him". The journalist, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012, has so far appeared in three videos.
Source:BBC
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