Gruesome Isil video shows beheading of ‘Russian agent’
ISIL has released a video showing the beheading of what it says was an FSB agent, in the first such public killing of a Russian spy operating in Syria.
However, the Russian defence ministry denied any Russian serviceman had been captured and killed by Isil in Syria.
The video released yesterday shows a captive identified as Colonel Evgeny Petrenko seen wearing a black jumpsuit and kneeling in the sand as a Russianspeaking Isil fighter holds a knife to his throat. He is then killed in a gruesome execution.
Col Petrenko (38) was reportedly a captain in the second division of the FSB, Russia’s intelligence service, and lived in Moscow.
The bearded knifeman, who makes no attempt to hide his face, is believed to be Chechen. Thousands of Russian speakers left to join Isil from the North Caucasus region of Russia and former Soviet republics in central Asia.
“This idiot believed the promises of his state not to abandon him if he was captured,” the captive said, referring to himself in the third person as he addressed the camera. “One of my orders was to gain access to Omar al-Shishani or to his circle. But during this I was discovered and arrested by the security services of the caliphate,” he added, appearing to be speaking under duress.
Shishani is a Georgian Chechen commander for Isil in Syria who is said to have been killed in 2016.
Withdraw
The captive then called on the Russian government to withdraw its troops from the war-torn country.
The authenticity of the video could not immediately be verified.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said all servicemen in Syria had been accounted for and continued their task of “fighting international terrorism”. There was no immediate comment from the FSB.
Viktor Ozerov, a senator on the Russian upper house’s security and defence committee, called on the military to investigate the video and for the perpetrators of the crime to be “severely punished” regardless of the victim’s identity.
It is thought the captive was held for several months before he was killed late last week. However, it is believed Isil held the video release back until yesterday to coincide with Victory Day, when Russia celebrates the anniversary of the 1945 victory over Nazi Germany with military parades.
Meanwhile, a British jihadist, who was part of an Isil cell known as the “Beatles” which tortured foreign hostages, has been convicted in Turkey on terror charges.
Aine Davis (33), from Hammersmith in west London, was arrested in November 2015 for his role in a plot to carry out attacks in Istanbul similar to those in Paris that targeted the Bataclan theatre, the Stade de France and cafés and restaurants.
A judge in a court in Silivri, a district of Istanbul, found Davis guilty of being a senior member of a terrorist organisation yesterday and sentenced him to seven years and six months in prison. (© Daily Telegraph London)