VIDEO-Was US hostage killed in American airstrike BEFORE beheading video? Peter Kassig died in bombing raid days in raid days before Jihadi John paraded his severed head, claim Syrian activists | Daily Mail Online

Wed, 19 Nov 2014 03:56

Resistance leader says militant told him Mr Kassig died on November 5Says warplanes struck ISIS target in Tel-Abyad, killing Mr KassigMilitants then used his body to make it appear he had been executed By Sharon Churcher In New York And John Hall In London For Mailonline

Published: 07:11 EST, 17 November 2014 | Updated: 17:14 EST, 17 November 2014

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Peter Kassig's execution may have been faked by Jihadi John after the US hostage was killed in an US-led airstrike, according to extraordinary claims from the leader of a Syrian underground group.

Speaking over Skype from a hiding place near the Turkish border, the head of the anti-ISIS resistance group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently claimed there are reports that Mr Kassig died on November 5, when coalition fighter planes and drones pounded Tel-Abyad in northern Syria.

The extraordinary allegation could not be independently verified.

The claims come among increased speculation over why Mr Kassig's full body was not shown in the video. Unlike ISIS' previous sickening filmed murders, he did not speak directly to camera before being killed and his body was not shown after the murder.

U.S. sources have suggested that Mr Kassig could have been killed before the video was shot because he did not cooperate with the jihadists, either refusing to give a final speech on camera or possibly even fighting back while the murder was taking place.

American forces have previously attempted a daring rescue of U.S. hostages and President Obama has said that he would make all efforts to rescue U.S. citizens if their location could be identified.

Western planes have carried out a series of raids on the Isis weapons stockpile and refinery where Peter Kassig is claimed to have been hit but if there had been any intelligence suggesting where he was being held such strikes would have been highly unlikely to be authorized.

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Location of video: Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently claimed to have pinpointed the execution site used by ISIS in their latest sickening video. The group identified a cluster of buildings in the background of ISIS' latest video and matched them up with those on desert road in the north of the town

Questions: Experts say the reason Peter Kassig (pictured) does not appear alive in ISIS' latest sickening video could be either due to him having been killed during an earlier American airstrike, or because he refused to give a final speech on camera or fought back while the murder was taking place

The campaign group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently also claimed to have pinpointed the exact location used by ISIS in their latest sickening video - which also showed a group of Syrian soldiers being brutally murdered by a large number of unmasked militants.

The resistance group produced a map to show the location in the northern suburbs of the small but highly symbolic Syrian town of Dabiq, north of Aleppo. The terror group's de facto capital is Raqqa, where previous filmed murders featuring the militant known as 'Jihadi John' are understood to have been filmed.

Tributes paid to Peter Kassig aid worker beheaded by ISIS

But their most controversial allegation was that Mr Kassig could have been killed by accident in an American airstrike in Tel-Abyad. US Central Defence Command have previously announced that an onslaught destroyed an ISIS weapons stockpile in the town.

The resistance leader, a 22 year old medical student who uses the nom de guerre Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, said in an interview: 'I think ISIS didn't execute Peter. An ISIS soldier told me this morning that Peter died in an airstrike on 5th November in Tel-Abyad and that is why they didn't show a video of the execution.

'The soldier was one of the first who arrived on the scene to secure it after an airstrike hit the Islamic State court building in Tel-Abyad. He said there was immediate high security and nobody was permitted entry to the building, not even ISIS fighters. Then two bodies were taken out of the building and put into a speeding car.'

Sickening: The latest ISIS video showed a group of Syrian soldiers being marched along a desert road in Dabiq and brutally murdered by a large number of unmasked militants

Mr Raqqawi claims that the soldier said one of the bodies was that of Mr Kassig.

The British thug known as Jihadi John allegedly then used the remains to stage the barbaric video: 'I think that is why there is a lot of blood on the face and no body -- just a head,' said Mr Raqqawi.

He did not suggest that the US knew Peter Kassig was being held at the Isis target - instead hinting that if true it would simply be a terrible accident.

U.S. Central Command was not immediately available for comments, but a message on its website reads: 'U.S. and partner nation military forces continued to attack ISIL terrorists in Syria November 5-7 using fighter, bomber and remotely piloted aircraft to conduct eight airstrikes'..... One airstrike near Tall Abyad destroyed an ISIL weapons stockpile.' MailOnline has requested a comment from the Pentagon.

ISIL is an alternative acronym for ISIS commonly used by the United States military.

Previous claims by the Raqqa group have been supported by British intelligence sources.

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One of America's leading forensic pathologists, Dr Michael M. Baden, told MailOnline that it was possible that such an execution could be staged.

Stressing that his opinion was based solely on his professional experience, since there is no access to the remains or authenticated photographs, he said: 'I'd have thought that if Mr Kasssig was killed by an American airstrike, revealing that would have had more shock value.

But he added that it was possible that a head removed from an already dead person's body could easily be made to look as though the individual had been murdered by beheading.

'When there's a death in an explosion such as an airstrike, assuming the cause of death is traumatic blunt force injuries to the body elsewhere than the head...there would be nothing to prevent a sharp dissection being made to resemble an execution by beheading.'

Dr Baden is a former chief medical examiner for New York City. He has been an expert witness in numerous high profile criminal cases, including the murder trial of OJ Simpson, and was chairman of the pathology panel of a Congressional investigation into the assassination of President John Kennedy.

Parents of aid worker murdered by IS group pay tribute to their...

Militant: Peter Kassig's execution may have been faked by Jihadi John (pictured) after the hostage was killed in an US-led airstrike, according to the leader of resistance group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently

Mr Raqqawi's group of non-partisan pacifists - who oppose both the Syrian regime and Jihadi John's fundamentalists - have been risking their lives to publicise ISIS atrocities.

One of his supporters reportedly was shot through the head in a public execution after he was traced on Facebook.

Mr Raqqawi also claimed to have matched up footage of the executions of the first hostages, American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, with photos of a hillside near Ittihad University in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa.

The resistance leader said that Jihadi John brazenly was using the area as a killing ground.

A British intelligence source told Mail Online that the security services had received similar accounts.

The New York Times reported that the beheadings of Mr Foley, Mr Sotloff, and two UK aid workers, Alan Henning and David Haines, each appeared to be filmed on the hill near Raqqa

In contrast, Mr Kassig's severed head appears in the final two minutes of a nearly 16-minute video which Mr Raqqawi says was filmed in the desert town Dabiq - 30 miles north of the city of Aleppo.

The group identified a cluster of buildings in the background of ISIS' latest video and matched them up with those on desert road in the north of the town.

Indiana residents talk about beheading of US aid worker Peter...

Peter Kassig is pictured while working as an aid worker in Syria before his capture. His murder is not actually shown in the latest film and he does not deliver a final message as other hostages have

'Raqqawi's account makes sense,' an expert told Mail Online. 'If ISIS really executed Peter, they would have shown it, not just his head between the boots of Jihadi John. This video is not keeping with their style at all. '

The footage of Mr. Kassig's head is 'markedly less professional' than the previous execution videos, another terrorism expert, Jean-Charles Brisard, told The New York Times.

'We know that the past executions were filmed from multiple perspectives, so perhaps something happened here that prevented them from doing so.'

Over the weekend new details emerged that Jihadi John may have been injured during an airstrike in Iraq on November 8 - three days after the American bombing raid in Tel-Abyad that is alleged to have killed Mr Kassig.

As well as Jihadi John, those reportedly hurt or possibly even killed included ISIS' leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

A well-placed independent source told the Mail on Sunday that the airstrike took place in Al Qaim, in Anbar Province, Western Iraq while approximately 30 tribal elders from various parts of Syria and Iraq gathered to pledge allegiance to Al-Baghdadi.

HOW USING DABIQ AS LOCATION FOR LATEST SICKENING EXECUTIONS EVOKES A 1,300 APOCALYPTIC PROPHECY THAT IS FUELLING ISIS FANATICS' BELIEF OF APOCALYPTIC BETWEEN A MUSLIM ARMY AND AN 'INFIDEL HORDE'The latest ISIS video featuring a brutal filmed murder is understood to have been filmed in Dabiq - an area of increasing symbolic importance to Islamic State terrorists.

As well as naming their English-language propaganda magazine after the small desert village, a 1,300 year old prophecy predicting Dabiq as the location of an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and an 'infidel horde' is understood to be fueling the warped imaginations of the fanatics.

The town, which is in Aleppo province, was captured from the Free Syrian Army in August and prompted streams of highly romanticized propaganda in which ISIS militants identified it as the first step towards ushering in the Apocalypse.

A key feature of this prophecy invovles attracting the 'infidel horde' into Dabiq for a huge ground battle.

ISIS has even named its official magazine, which reinforces its extremist views, 'Dabiq' (two editions above)

It is notable that in the latest sickening video, the militant known as Jihadi John is now urging Britain and America to send their troops to fight in Syria, rather than to leave the Islamic State alone as he had done in previous videos.

'Here we are - burying the first American crusader in Dabiq... Eagerly waiting for the remainder of your armies to arrive,' he says.

The 1,300-year-old hadith, which is a report of the deeds, teachings and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, refers to the 'horde' flying 80 banners as they take on a Muslim army in the Syrian town of Dabiq.

It warns of a 'malahim' - the equivalent to Armageddon in Christian teachings '' in which the Muslims ultimately prevail.

ISIS supporters on social media have started comparing recent developments in Syria to the prophecy amid warnings the 'malahim' is coming.

Islamic State fighters are said to have drawn on the prophecy even more so since conquering Dabiq in August and the town's name has become a byword for the struggle against the West.

The terrorist group has even named its official magazine 'Dabiq', in which it pushes its extremist views and reports victories.

Supporters appear to be convinced of the prophecy's validity, with one writing on Twitter: 'Dabiq will happen for certain... The U.S. and its allies will descend on Syria once they see that the air campaign has failed. That is a promise by God and his Messenger.'

Another, from Tunisia, wrote. 'The lions of Islam have raised the banner of the Caliphate in Dabiq. Now they await the arrival of the Crusader army.'

Shadi Hamid, a fellow at the Brookings Institute, said the hadith is heavily relied upon by ISIS because it 'raises morale'.

He said: 'It is fair to assume that the vast majority of (ISIS) fighters believe in this type of talk.'