Boko Haram may have gone a step in the direction of the ISIS, the Middle East jihadist group, releasing a new video yesterday of two captives being beheaded. The two victims were accused of spying on the terrorists.
The six-minute video, titled “Harvest of Spies,” translated into English, French and Arabic, was posted yesterday on Twitter by Boko Haram’s media arm and initially reported by the SITE Intelligence Group, an organisation that monitors terrorist groups online.
In particular, the video shows a farmer confessing under duress to spying for the police, and a second man, decapitated with their heads on their chests. The video was tweeted out by ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts.
In the Boko Haram latest video, the two victims are also shown being dragged before masked gunmen. The outdoor video, which could not be independently verified, was posted on Twitter.
The beheading video was said to have been produced in the style of ISIS videos that have shown Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff, both journalists, and aid worker Peter Kassig before and after they were killed. Boko Haram had previously published only one beheading of a Nigerian fighter pilot whose plane went down last September.
Even before yesterday’s video, however, experts had begun to notice that Boko Haram group was beginning to adopt ISIS tactics. Indeed, a slick recruiting video package Boko Haram released last month was said to have been similar to one the Middle East jihadist group put out previously that analysts said it could not be coincidental.
However, it is now believed by experts in terror that there is more evidence of this growing allegiance, including the ISIS flag on the Boko Haram logo, ISIS music and songs in latest Boko Haram propaganda videos; and Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, praising leader of ISIS Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Nigeria’s security forces have been getting upper-hand recently in the war against terrorism, especially with the coalition of the Multinational forces, which include the militaries of Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
The release of the video appears a way for the terrorists to gain attention and show that they are not being defeated.
Source: Newswatch Daily
