British hostage John Cantlie criticizes Western media, says Kobani about to fall in new ISIS video
By RYAN GORMAN
ISIS has released another video featuring British hostage John Cantlie, this time from the hotly-contested Syrian border town Kobani.
The bizarre five-minute video titled "Inside Ayn al-Isla" shows the captive journalist walking amongst the ruins in a section of the Kurdish stronghold and saying that it will soon be under Islamic State control and criticizing Western media.
It begins with drone footage of the besieged city before the Briton appears on camera "reporting" from the "so-called PKK safe zone."
As is the case with ISIS propaganda videos, slick graphics and production techniques are used.
Cantlie is shown wearing a black shirt and speaking from a rooftop. His previous videos under the "Lend Me Your Ear" monicker showed him in an orange robe traditionally worn by Muslim.
PKK is the acronym for the Kurdistan Worker's Party.
"Now the battle for Kobani is coming to an end," said Cantlie. "The mujahedeen are just mopping up now, street to street, and building to building."
The propaganda this time, though, takes a much different tone. Instead of criticizing bombing raids and U.S. President Barack Obama, Cantlie takes on the media's reporting of battles in the war-torn region.
Cantlie takes a shot at "good old John Kerry," the U.S. Secretary of State, saying he has been critical of "Kurd-hating Turkish President Erdogan."
He also criticizes the American airstrikes costing "almost half a billion dollars" and an American airdrop seized by the terrorists.
"The mujahideen is now being resupplied, by the hopeless U.S. Air Force, who parachuted two crates of weapons and ammunition straight into the outstretched arms of the mujahedeen," says Cantlie.
Cantlie appears to be reading against his own will from a script forcing him to criticize Western governments and media for receiving news only from "Kurdish commanders and White House press secretaries."
Among those media outlets specifically named by the British journalist are the BBC, the Independent (U.K.) and the International Business Times.
Cantlie also calls into question the ability of Western forces to beat the terror group on its own turf.
"Urban warfare is about as nasty and as tough as it gets, and it's something of a specialty of the mujahedeen," he says.
The Briton has now appeared in five videos for the insurgents, but this latest one is the first to try to at least appear Western in nature.
Unlike other hostages, he has strangely been allowed to survive while the others were beheaded shortly after being shown on camera, or simply just beheaded on camera.
It is not clear why ISIS chose Cantlie to be their messenger over other journalists taken hostage and executed. Just last week, his ailing father pleaded for the terrorists to release his son.
The terrorists have beheaded a number of hostages including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
Related links:
Officials say ISIS earns $1 million a day from black market
Turkey says it helps Kurdish fighters enter Syria
Staggering satellite images show devastation Syrian civil war has had on country
