Hostages purportedly beheaded by IS
CAIRO – A video purporting to show the mass beheading of Coptic Christian hostages has been released by militants in Libya affiliated with the Islamic State group.
The killings raise the possibility that the Islamic militant group – which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq in a self-declared caliphate – has established a direct affiliate less than 500 miles from the southern tip of Italy. One of the militants in the video makes direct reference to that possibility, saying the group now plans to “conquer Rome.”
The militants had been holding 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians hostage for weeks, all laborers rounded up from the city of Sirte in December and January. It was one of the first such beheading videos from an Islamic State group affiliate to come from outside the group’s core territory in Syria and Iraq.
The video’s makers identify themselves as the Tripoli Province of the Islamic State group. A still photo, apparently taken from the video, was published last week in the Islamic State group’s Dabiq online magazine – indicating a direct connection between the Libyan militants and the main group.
One militant, dressed differently than the others, addresses the camera in North American-accented English.
“All crusaders: safety for you will be only wishes, especially if you are fighting us all together. Therefore we will fight you all together,” he said. “The sea you have hidden Sheikh Osama Bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood.”
Israelis paint leftists as anti-Semites
JERUSALEM – An Israeli settler group is under fire for releasing a YouTube video portraying Israeli leftists as collaborators with European anti-Semites.
“The eternal Jew” depicts a grotesquely animated Jew with a long, bent nose who informs on his brethren in return for a coin tossed from his European master. The final scene shows the Jew hanging from a tree with a warning that “Europeans may seem different to you, but to them ... you are exactly the same.” Next are the logos of well-known dovish Israeli organizations, including the New Israel Fund, B’Tselem and Peace Now.
The chairman of the Samaria Residents Council, Benny Katzover, defended the clip.
American youth gored by bull in Spain
MADRID – An American youth is recovering in the intensive-care unit of a hospital in western Salamanca after being savagely gored during a bullfighting festival celebrating Carnival, officials said Sunday.
Surgeon Enrique Crespo said he was called to operate on the American, who had been gored and tossed by a large fighting bull on Saturday, the first day of nearby Ciudad Rodrigo’s “Carnaval del Toro.”
“It’s not the worst injury I’ve seen, but it’s the biggest goring wound I’ve ever had to operate on,” Crespo told The Associated Press.
The youth underwent a three-hour operation to repair damage to thighs, sphincter and back muscles, Crespo said.
Associated Press
