Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 | Page 30

(Image released 4 January 2016 by Associated Press)

This image, taken from undated video footage issued by Islamic State (IS) militants, shows five men accused of being spies for the United
Kingdom just before their execution. Released online and yet to be independently verified, the footage shows a man waving a gun as
he references Britain’s “handful of planes” carrying out air attacks on IS targets in Iraq and Syria. It also shows the five men “confessing” to
filming and photographing sites in exchange for money within Raqqa, the capital of the IS’s self-declared caliphate.

Beheading, Raping,
and Burning: How the
Islamic State Justifies
Its Actions
Lt. Cmdr. David G. Kibble, British Royal Naval Reserve, Retired

N

o one attentive to world events can fail to
be aware of the grisly acts of terror being
perpetrated by Islamic State (IS): beheadings, rapes, drownings, shootings, burning a pilot alive,
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blowing up prisoners trapped in a car, and even involving child soldiers in the perpetration of some of their
execution rituals. The world—including members of
the Muslim community who have roundly condemned
March-April 2016  MILITARY REVIEW