British captive appears in new Daesh video

Beirut — British journalist John Cantlie, who is being held prisoner by the Daesh group, appeared in a new video released Saturday supposedly filmed in the militants’ Iraqi stronghold of Mosul. In the latest installment in a series of propaganda videos released by Daesh, Cantlie speaks to the camera in the style of a news report. It is unclear when it was shot, but Cantlie last appeared in a Daesh video in early 2015. In Saturday’s video, a gaunt-looking Cantlie says he is in Mosul. Dressed in black and squinting in the sunshine, he is seen standing in front of a metal shack he describes as a media kiosk that distributes Daesh pamphlets, which was destroyed in an air strike by a US-led coalition. Speaking in English with Arabic subtitles, as in previous clips of the same style, Cantlie criticizes and derides the US-led campaign launched in 2014 against Daesh. He was kidnapped along with journalist James Foley in November 2012 in Syria while covering the war there. Foley then became the first of several hostages to be slain by the militants. Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders has condemned Daesh for its “cowardly” use of a hostage in a forced role to push the militants’ propaganda.