ISIL video purports to show boy killing alleged spy

Doug Stanglin | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption The children who fight for the Islamic State Militant groups using children for combat is nothing new, but ISIL has committed the war crime in a much broader fashion than groups in the past. Video provided by Newsy.

The Islamic State released a video of the purported execution of a young Israeli Arab who the group claimed had confessed to being an Israeli spy, but whose father said ran off to join the extremists and became disillusioned with war.

The grim 13-minute video, posted online, purportedly shows an Islamic State militant and a boy wearing a camouflage uniform standing behind Mohamed Said Ismail Musalam, 19, who is wearing an orange jumpsuit and is kneeling.

The older fighter, speaking French, denounces the "stupid Mossad" for sending people "to spy on the secrets of the Mujahedeen and the Muslims."

Then the boy in the uniform, described by the older fighter as a "cub of the caliphate," steps forward and appears to shoot the captive three times in the head.

While the authenticity of the video could not be independently verified, it was released by the Islamic State's Furqan media arm and is similar to previous videos from the group, also known as ISIL or ISIS.

A French official told the Associated Press that the boy and older fighter have been identified as French citizens.

The official, who has close ties to intelligence services, also said authorities are investigating whether the man has links to the family of the Islamic extremist — Mohammed Merah — who attacked a Jewish school and paratroopers in southern France beginning on March 11, 2012 — exactly three years ago.

The official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the inquiry, said the man in the latest video speaks with a southern French accent and looks like Mohammed Merah's step-brother.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the latest video. Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency said it announced earlier this year that Musalam, a Palestinian living in East Jerusalem, had left for Turkey to fight with the Islamic State, the AP reported.

Musalam's father, Said, told Army Radio Wednesday that his son had joined the extremist group voluntarily but quickly regretted the decision, The Times of Israel reported.

He denied allegations that his son was an agent for the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.

"Mossad! What Mossad? Would the Mossad enlist a 19-year-old boy who doesn't know the first thing about life?" the father said.

"I don't know what they did to him. Maybe they gave him drugs before he boarded the plane, promises of paradise and money," he told Army Radio.

Musalam eventually contacted his family online from the Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria and said he wanted to return home, his father told the AP.

"He told me, 'Look dad, I am fed up here, it is a country of war, and I want to come back,'" Said said.

Last month, the militant group's English-language propaganda magazine Dabiq published what it claimed was an interview with Musalam in which he allegedly confessed to being an Israeli spy.

The article, which included photographs of Musalam, quoted him as saying he was recruited by a Jewish neighbor named "Eli" who worked as a police officer.

In the purported interview, Musalam allegedly said Mossad wanted him to report on the location of Islamic State bases in Syria and the whereabouts of its weapons and rockets.

More than a month ago, the family got a call from an unidentified person who said Musalam had fled the militant group but was caught at a checkpoint near the Turkish border and put in an Islamic State jail.

"They did not want to let him leave because if he comes back, he might be caught by the Israelis and tell them what he had seen. So they wanted to get rid of him," the father told the AP. "I know my son. I raised him well. I am sure he's not working for the Mossad."

According to the Islamic State publication Dabiq, Musalam is quoted as saying he was caught because he "began acting in a manner that was not typical of a muhajir despite the training (he) had received from the Mossad."

In the purported interview, Musalam is quoted as blaming his father and brother for his plight.

"I say to my father and my brother who got me entangled in this mess, you

brought me into this, you tempted me with money and with the dunyā (worldly life), and put me in the position that I'm in now," he is quoted as saying. "Repent to Allah. ... You got me into this."

The pattern followed that of several execution videos in recent months in which the kneeling victim appears to be calm. Sky News, quoting an Islamic State defector, reported that the victims do not appear agitated or attempt to fight back in the videos because they have been subjected to mock executions and are told the event is only staged for show.

The unidentified defector, who said he served as an Islamic State translator, told Sky News that the victims are told the mock executions are only for making a video to put pressure on the foreigners' home government.

In January, the Islamic State released another video purporting to show a child executing two men accused of being Russian spies who tried to infiltrate the militant organization in Syria.

The video was titled "Uncovering an Enemy Within" and features two men who appear to acknowledge they work for Russian security services.

One of the men said he was recruited by Russia's Federal Security Service to get close to an unidentified Islamic State fighter.

In the video, a slender youth with shoulder-length hair who appears to be younger than a teenager is shown purportedly executing the kneeling men with a pistol.

The boy had appeared in an earlier Islamic State propaganda video, saying he was from Kazakhstan and wanted to grow up to kill infidels.