Britain’s intelligence agencies have made a preliminary assessment that theIslamic State made false claims that the five hostages murdered in a new propaganda video had acted as UK spies.
David Cameron, who confirmed that he had viewed part of the footage, said the video was “desperate stuff” from an organisation that is losing territory under pressure from allied airstrikes.Britain’s three intelligence agencies – MI5, MI6 and GCHQ – have been analysing the video since its release over the weekend and concluded that none of the hostages were working for Britain.
The agencies cannot definitively rule out that they may have been working for other allied countries. Their strong assumption, however, is that the hostages were working for Syrian resistance opposed to Isis in their territory. A vital part of the resistance’s work is the dissemination of video to highlight the horrifying impact of life under Isis.
But Hamoud al Mousa, who describes himself as the founder of the anti-Isis activist group Raqqa is Being Silently Slaughtered, told the Guardian he did not know the victims and that they were not part of the organisation.
Downing Street declined to comment on intelligence matters. But the prime minister’s spokeswoman cast doubt on claims in the video that the apparent victims were UK spies. “This does appear to be a propaganda tool and not all of Isil’s propaganda in the past has been true,” the spokeswoman said.
Cameron said the video showed that Isis was now on the back foot. “I watched a part of [the video] yesterday and I think it is absolutely desperate tactics from an organisation that is clearly now on the back foot,” he told LBC radio.
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