Defiant British PM says ISIS execution video ‘desperate stuff’

British Prime Minister David Cameron says a new Islamic State video of a masked man and young boy demonstrates the group is “under pressure”. Mr Cameron said the video showing the execution of five alleged spies was “desperate stuff” from a group that is “losing territory” and “increasingly losing anybody’s sympathy”. Security and intelligence officials are examining the unverified video which shows a masked militant with a British accent threatening the UK and calling Mr Cameron an “imbecile”. A child aged about five, who apparently spoke with a UK accent, also appears in the video wearing an IS headband and a camouflage outfit.

You will lose this war as you lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Masked militant on the video

In the 10-minute film, the five detainees apparently confessed to the allegations that IS accused them of. On a visit to east London, Mr Cameron said it was “desperate stuff” from a group that carried out “the most utterly despicable and ghastly acts”. He said: “But this is an organisation that’s losing territory, it’s losing ground, it’s, I think, increasingly losing anybody’s sympathy,” he said. He said IS hated the UK for being a “successful, tolerant, democratic, multi-faith, multi-ethnic nation”, but added that Britain would “never be cowed”. The footage comes in the wake of recent losses by ISIS, including in the Iraqi city of Ramadi which the army claimed to have captured from the militants.

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.

David Cameron

Politics Islamic State video