An Islamic State video appears to show a boy aged around 12 executing what it says are two intelligence agents working for Russian intelligence.

The Islamic State video released through Islamic State run Al Hayat media, appears to show two alleged Russian intelligence (FSB) agents being executed by a child of eurasian descent.

There is no way immediately to prove the authenticity of the video.

The use of the boy in the video does indicates a change of tactic for the militant group.

Eliot Higgins, an analyst of weapons and warfare media and the founder of the Brown Moses blog, believes however that the video is genuine. He tells Channel 4 News: “It does appear to be a genuine video, with the young boy having appeared in an earlier Isis video shared online in late 2014.

“Blood can be seen coming from the ear of the first victim and nose of the second after the shots. This shows that there’s more than one way that Islamic State brutalises the population in the areas it occupies.”

The video’s release comes shortly after a young boy was alleged to have conducted a suicide attack for Islamic State militants in a photo report released by IS yesterday, and after a 10-year-old girl was alleged to have been used by Islamist Boko Haram militants in Nigeria in recent days.

‘Assassination plot’

The boy, who appears to be around 12 years old, is seen standing alongside a Russian-speaking fighter who says: “Allah has gifted the Islamic State’s security agency with the apprehension of these two spies.

“They have confessed that they work for the Russian Intelligence (FSB) and that they were recruited in Russia and then sent to the Islamic State.”

The boy then appears to shoot both men at point blank range.

Earlier in the video the men are seen being interviewed in Russian and identify themselves as FSB agents. One claims he was threatened by the FSB into carrying out a mission to “come to Sham (Syria) and get close to an Islamic State leader (name redacted) and inform the FSB about him.”

“And also to gather information about fighters from Russia and send the information to Russia.”

A second man says that his mission was to locate and assassinate an Islamic State leader whose name is redacted in the video.

Poster boy

The boy first appeared in a video released by Islamic State online in November last year called Racing Towards Good, also produced by Al Hayat Media, which produces a number of Islamic State videos.

The boy has also been pictured in the Islamic State magazine Dabiq.

In the video in which he is featured, several children are seen assembling, shooting Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles.

In the November video the boy says: “I will be the one who slaughters you, O kuffar [non-believer]. I will be a mujahid, insha’allah.”