FBI Wants Help Identifying ISIS Jihadist In Execution Video

The FBI is seeking information that will help them find the ISIS jihadist seen on video helping perform a mass execution of Syrian soldiers, and they’re turning to the American public for assistance.

A 55-minute ISIS recruitment video released last month titled “The Flames of War” showed the jihadist orchestrate a mass execution of Syrian soldiers, all while switching between classical Arabic and perfect English with a North American dialect, leading the FBI to believe that he may have ties here in the United States.

On Tuesday, the FBI released a segment of the video on their website and asked the public for assistance on identifying the man. Michael Steinbach, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, posted alongside the video.

“We’re hoping that someone might recognize this individual and provide us with key pieces of information.”

This request is part of the FBI’s broader outreach to the public to help identify Americans leaving the country to fight alongside terrorist groups and those returning to the country after such fights.

Analysts are still examining the video, noting that the ISIS militant is clearly educated in the West and that the choice to have him figurehead the film is a deliberate attempt to scare western cultures. CNN reports that the identity of the Syrian soldiers has yet to be confirmed, or even if they actually were soldiers as the man in the video suggests.

The request is coming on the heels of a growing list of videos released by another English-speaking member of ISIS who beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, British journalist Alan Henning, British aid worker David Haines, and is now threatening the same fate for another American hostage, Peter Kassig. Authorities have been tight-lipped on information about the case, with reports that they may or may not know the executioner’s identity.

ISIS is currently protesting the bombings in Syria by American and British forces seeking to eliminate terror threats. Facing them has become a hot issue here in the U.S. with political candidates on both sides of the aisle voicing their strategies of dealing with the terror threat. A controversial strategy brought up by many candidates is arming Syrian rebels who are looking to oust the current regime. Opponents argue that could easily backfire and end with the United States inadvertently arming ISIS instead, similar to the controversy surrounding the ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious scandal that took place between 2006 and 2011, during which nearly 2,000 firearms were sold to illegal traffickers with the hopes of tracking them and arresting higher-level cartel members who receive them. To date, only 710 of the firearms have been retrieved, and no cartel members have been arrested.

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