France Identifies Two Nationals In Recent Islamic State Video
French officials have identified another French national in a recent execution video that shows the killing of dozens of Syrian soldiers.
On Wednesday, France identified one of the Islamic State militants in the video as being 22-year-old Mickael Dos Santos, a Muslim convert hailing from a suburb of Paris. A first French national was also identified in the video as being Maxime Hauchard, also a Muslim convert from Normandy.
Along with showing the deaths of several Syrian soldiers, the recently-released video also shows the severed head of American aid worker Peter Kassig, who was kidnapped in Syria last year while trying to deliver aid supplies to locals.
President Barack Obama has denounced the video as "pure evil," adding that Kassig "was taken from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity."
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls spoke out on the recent identity of the two French nationals, saying it is sadly unsurprising that many Frenchmen have traveled to the Middle East to fight with the Islamic State.
"Sadly, we are not surprised to learn that French citizens or residents of France are found at the heart of these cells and taking part in this barbarity," he said.
Valls added that about 1,000 French extremists are suspected of traveling to the Middle East to aid the terror organization.
Great Britain, suffering from a similar problem of nationals joining the Islamic State, recently announced that extremists attempting to return back to Great Britain after fighting in the Middle East will be barred from returning the European country.