Islamic State militants have published a video that is said to depict the murder of a British aid convoy volunteer Alan Henning three weeks after warning that he would be the next to die.
If the video is found to be authentic, Henning will be the fourth western hostage to have been killed by the group, following the video-taped beheadings of US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and Scottish aid worker David Haines.
The latest crime comes after the UK launched air strikes against Isis, joining the US and its Arab allies – Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – which had been targeting the group for several days.
Shortly before the Ministry of Defence announced that the RAF had attacked two Isis targets, the foreign office arranged for Henning’s wife Barbara to make a televised appeal for his release. His death, if confirmed, will be a devastating blow to her and to their two teenage children.
Intelligence agencies on both side of the Atlantic are studying the video in an attempt to verify its authenticity.
Henning, 47, a taxi driver from Eccles, Greater Manchester, had been held captive in Syria for nine months, and is thought to have been held by Isis with up to 20 other western hostages for much of that time.
Described by friends as “a big man with a big heart”, Henning fell into the group’s hands after joining a group of Muslim friends on an aid convoy to Syria last Christmas.
It was the second time in nine months that Henning had joined an aid convoy to Syria, after helping to raise funds to purchase the ambulances and medical equipment that were being taken into the country.
Other volunteers on the convoy have since described how he was separated from them after armed men surrounded a warehouse, a short drive from the Turkish border, where they were delivering ambulances and medical equipment. The gunmen were claimed that they were suspicious about Henning because he was not a Muslim, and because he had a chip in his UK passport. He was taken away despite the other volunteers demonstrating that all UK passports carried such a chip.
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