ISIS Video Shows Execution of Ethiopian Christians in Libya

Islamic State (ISIS) released a video online on Sunday purportedly showing ISIS-affiliated jihadists brutally executing about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya. The roughly 30-minute video shows the ISIS-connected Barka Province group in eastern Libya holding one group of captives and the Fazzan Province, another affiliate in southern Libya, with the rest of the prisoners.

The video starts with speeches and interviews about Islam dominating all religions, especially Christianity, and clips of jihadists destroying churches, graves, and icons. One man says that Christians must convert to Islam or pay a tax required by the Koran.

The end of the video switches between the masked fighters in southern Libya marching their captives in all black to a desert and shooting them in the back of the head and masked jihadists in the east marching their prisoners in orange jumpsuits on a Mediterranean beach to then behead them.

Ethiopian government spokesman Redwan Hussein said his country is not sure yet whether the victims were Ethiopians, but it “condemns the atrocious act.” He also said Ethiopia would repatriate Ethiopians if they desire.

The video has not been verified as authentic, but the U.S. intelligence community is reviewing it with no reason to doubt that it is, according to sources. The production was released by ISIS-controlled al-Furqan Media Group and resembles past ISIS videos, particularly one released in February showing 21 Coptic Christians from Egypt being executed on a Libyan beach in an identical manner to the Ethiopian Christians.

The Egyptian Christian executions caused Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to carry out airstrikes on ISIS targets in Libya. Possibly thousands of jihadists moved from the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt – where Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, another ISIS-affiliate, is located – to Libya after Sisi seized power from Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Several jihadist groups have taken advantage of the chaotic situation in Libya ever since Colonel Moammar Gadhafi was ousted from power in 2011 and the U.S. failed to help lead a post-conflict resolution effort. ISIS seized the opportunity to have a presence in Libya and has conducted attacks like one in January on the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli, Libya’s capital, which killed ten people, including an American.

This video is evidence that ISIS is spreading across continents from Iraq and Syria and perpetrating a true humanitarian crisis bordering on genocide against Christians. The jihadist group also draws foreign fighters from around the world, including the west, and many of these people have passports enabling travel back to their homelands to carryout further jihad. Furthermore, ISIS is destabilizing states in the Middle East and Africa, putting American interests at risk.

With these thoughts in mind, ISIS poses a threat to American national security and the concept of international laws and norms. If this was not already clear, one simply needs to watch Sunday’s video. An ISIS-affiliate speaking English with an American accent warns, “You will not have safety, even in your dreams, until you accept Islam. To the nation of the cross: We are back again.”

It would be wise to take him at his word.