ISIS, Boko Haram release new videos showing beheading of hostages

Two known Islamic terrorist groups operating in Iraq, Syria and Nigeria - ISIS and Boko Haram- have released new videos in which they beheaded a British an aid worker, Alan Henning and an air-force pilot.

Nigeria’s Boko Haram released a 36-minute video that showed the beheading of a man believed to be the pilot of the Nigerian Air Force jet which went missing on September 11 during a bombing operation against the sect in the Kauri area of Borno State.

In the Boko Haram video obtained by AP, a man decked in a camouflage vest was shown kneeling while a man wielding an axe next to him chopped off his head. The victim had earlier in the video, identified himself as a wing commander in the Nigerian Air Force. “We were shot down and our aircraft crashed. To this day I don’t know the whereabouts of my second pilot,” he said.

AP also reports that Abubakar Shekau, leader of the group who the Nigerian military claimed to have killed first in 2009, later 2013 and recently a few days ago, was also seen in the latest video, although military authorities have maintained that the real Abubakar shekau was killed in 2013 and his impersantor killed in Konduga on September 17.

“Shekau” in the video, stands in front of three camouflaged vans, flanked by four heavily armed and masked fighters.

He said: “I hereby put to lie the claim that I was killed. Here I am alive. I will only die the day Allah takes my breath. I challenge you (military), I challenge you. You even said I was killed. If you killed me, does that mean you killed (the) religion? You are not honest. You have no proof, you have nothing to say.”

The other video released by the Islamic State, showed the murder of an aid convoy volunteer, Alan Henning. If the video is found to be authentic, Henning will be the fourth western hostage to have been beheaded by ISIS, following the video-taped executions of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and Scottish aid worker David Haines.

The latest crime comes after the UK launched air strikes against Isis, joining the US and its Arab allies – Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – which had been targetting the group for several days.

Henning is a 47-year-old taxi driver from Greater Manchester. He and about 20 other western hostages had been held captive in Syria by ISIS for more than nine months. He fell into the group's hands after joining a group of Muslim friends on an aid convoy to Syria last Christmas.