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Islamic State beheading video: Second French militant identified

PARIS — A second French militant has been identified in the video showing a beheaded American aid worker and the deaths of Syrian soldiers, France’s President said yesterday, calling for vigilance on “how these young people can be indoctrinated”.

PARIS — A second French militant has been identified in the video showing a beheaded American aid worker and the deaths of Syrian soldiers, France’s President said yesterday, calling for vigilance on “how these young people can be indoctrinated”.

President Francois Hollande said the roles of the two men have yet to be determined precisely.

“All we can say for now is that there are two French people who have been identified,” said Mr Hollande in Canberra, where he is on an official visit.

Government officials on Monday identified 22-year-old Maxime Hauchard among the Islamic State militants seen in the video announcing the death of aid worker Peter Kassig.

Ms Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre of the Paris prosecutor’s office, which is leading the investigation, said there was a “strong presumption” that Michael Dos Santos, a 22-year-old from the Paris suburbs who like Mr Hauchard left for Syria in August last year, was among those wielding knives in the video.

AFP news agency quoted a source close to the investigation as saying that the 22-year-old man is known as Abu Othman.

European jihadis have taken an increasingly visible role in propaganda by the Islamic State group, as the militants try to demonstrate a global profile. France is a significant source of its foreign recruits, with hundreds who have made the trip and about 1,100 under surveillance, officials said this week.

Western officials fear that an Islamic militant with a European passport could return from the war zone with dangerous skills and the means to reach more two dozen countries undetected.

More than 2,000 Europeans are believed to be among an estimated 15,000 foreigners who have joined the fighting, most of them for the Islamic State group, various government and analyst estimates showed.

The Islamic State group has declared a self-styled Islamic Caliphate in areas under its control, which it governs according to its violent interpretation of Syariah law.

The 15-minute video posted online on Sunday shows the decapitations of 18 men who Islamic State said were pilots and officers loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, as well as the severed head of Mr Kassig.

France is part of a coalition carrying out air strikes on the Islamic State and earlier this year toughened anti-terrorism laws to stop citizens going to Syria and prevent young Muslims becoming radicalised.

A report published by the CPDSI, an institute created specifically to study radicalisation linked to Islam in French society, showed on Tuesday that the majority of those who had turned to radical Islam were from middle-class families, originally atheist and under 21.

Mr Sebastien Pietrasanta, a lawmaker involved in finalising the new anti-terrorism legislation, told Reuters that only 50 per cent of the 1,130 linked to Islamic State cells were originally known to intelligence services.

“(Hauchard) is the perfect example of the phenomenon we’re facing: A small provincial village, a well-integrated family with jobs, radicalised on the Internet at a very young age, converts and leaves,” he said.

“It illustrates the diversity of the profile and the self-radicalisation on the Internet.” AGENCIES

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