Moscow denies ISIS executed officer in Syria

MOSCOW/DUBAI (Reuters) – Islamic State has issued a video showing the beheading of a man it described as a Russian intelligence officer captured in Syria, the US-based SITE monitoring website reported on Tuesday.

But the Russian Defense Ministry denied any Russian serviceman had been captured and killed by Islamic State in Syria.

The 12-minute Russian-language video, released on the day Russia celebrated the anniversary of the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany with military parades, showed the man dressed in a black jump suit kneeling in a desert scene and urging other Russian agents to surrender.

“This idiot believed the promises of his state not to abandon him if he was captured,” a narrator says in the recording, before the prisoner is beheaded by a bearded man dressed in combat fatigues.

The authenticity of the recording and the identity of the man could not immediately be verified, nor was it clear when the killing occurred.

In comments cited by Russian news agencies, the Defense Ministry said all Russian forces in Syria were accounted for and continuing the “struggle against international terrorism.”

There was no immediate response from the FSB security service.

Russian Sen. Vikor Ozerov told Interfax news agency “there would be hell to pay” if the recording proved authentic.

Russian forces are backing Syrian President Bashar Assad in his war with rebels and Islamists seeking to oust him. The video showed scenes of what it described as the aftermath of Russian bombing raids in Syria.