ISIS Beheads Egyptian Christians

Last weekend, a video surfaced of the Jihadist group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), showing the beheadings of 21 men. All of these men except one, according to National Public Radio (NPR), were Christian laborers from Egypt.

Beheadings have not been uncommon for ISIS. On August 13, 2014 ISIS released a video showing the beheading of U.S. journalist and ISIS hostage, James Foley. On September 13, 2014, yet another video, this time showing the murder of British aid worker, David Haines, is released. Then once more on October 3 and once again November 16, 2014 ISIS released videos of the deaths of British minicab driver, Alan Henning, and U.S. aid worker, Peter Kassig.

This particular set of murders by ISIS differs than the previous. According to Abraham Bashr Aziz, who was present during the kidnapping and is also a brother of one of the deceased, ISIS was specifically looking hostages who were Christian. He said, “I heard them screaming, and I heard them asking about the Christians. They just came to kidnap the Christians.” The kidnapping, however, was not random. According to NPR, the gunmen who came to kidnap Aziz, along with his friends and relatives, had a list of names. Aziz was one of the names on the list.

Egypt’s response to the beheadings was one of violence and retaliation. According to CNN Sunday, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi proclaimed his country “reserves the right of retaliation and with the methods and timing it sees fit for retribution for those murderers and criminals who are without the slightest humanity.” According to Reuters, an international news agency based in London, on Monday, February 16, Egyptian jet bombed Islamic State targets in Libya. An umbrella group of Islamists in Derna reported the bombing had killed women and children, and in addition warned Egypt of a “harsh and painful” response to come.

The terror from ISIS, however, did not stop there. According to CNN, an Iraqi official has recently confirmed that the town of al-Baghdadi, located in the province of Anbar, has been burned to the ground. With this town an additional 40 officers and tribesmen were burned alive. While the group has not posted photos of the murders on social media as they have in the past, there is reason to believe the Jihadist group is solely responsible for the murders and destruction. The proof comes from the social media updates bragging of their control of al-Baghdadi via photographs. These photographs included images of the recognizable government buildings in al-Baghdadi, along with corpses of the Iraqi joint forces located there.