CAIRO — A new Islamic State video distributed on social media on Sunday apparently shows the shootings and beheadings of two groups of Ethiopian Christians in Libya.
The video purports to show the killings in two locations, one described as being in the country’s south and the other a sunny Mediterranean beach. The same English-speaking fighter who presided over similar killings depicted in a video released in February declares, “We are back again.”
The 29-minute video, carrying the logo of the radical group’s production arm, Al Furqan Media, echoed the February video, which showed the simultaneous beheadings of 21 men, 20 of them Egyptian Coptic Christians, on a Libyan beach.
In response to the February incident, Egypt retaliated with airstrikes and tried without success to marshal regional support for military action against Islamist groups in Libya. Many of the executed Copts were from a few poor villages in southern Egypt.
Impoverished and desperate laborers from nearby countries including Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan continue to seek jobs in Libya despite the risks they run by being in the collapsing North African nation. Christians have been in particular peril.
In the video released Sunday, the ringleader informs “the nation of the cross” that Christians falling under the Islamic State’s control face death if they do not accept Islam, according to a transcript provided by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi activity. The killings were carried out to “take revenge for Muslim blood,” the chief executioner said.
In the video, one group of black-clad captives kneels before a line of masked fighters dressed in military-style camouflage uniforms and armed with automatic weapons, with a few scrubby tree branches visible in the background. Most of the kneeling men bow their heads, but in a still photo, one directs a terrified gaze at the camera.
Elsewhere, more captives are forced to kneel on the beach. As in the February video, this one lingers on the aftermath of their beheadings, with the waves stained red with blood and the executed men’s severed heads placed atop their corpses.
The exact number of victims could not be determined from the video. They were identified in a caption as adherents of “the hostile Ethiopian church.”
The video’s date and locations could not be independently verified.
Libya has fallen into chaos, with an heavily armed militias battling for political power and energy wealth. They are organized loosely into a Tripoli-based faction loyal to the Islamist-leaning former parliament, and an internationally recognized government based in the country’s east.
Neither has gained the upper hand in months of fighting that has caused tens of thousands of Libyans to flee their homes, and international mediation efforts have failed.
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