New ISIS video appears to show child killing alleged Russian spies

A horrifying new video released online on Tuesday appears to show ISIS using a young boy to execute a pair of captives the terror group claims are Russian spies.

The slickly-produced video shows two men being interrogated in Russian about their alleged attempt to infiltrate ISIS. One captive, and alleged Kazakh national, states he was ordered to spy on an ISIS leader , while the other confesses to having been sent to assassinate a senior ISIS commander. The video later skips to an outdoor scene where the alleged spies are kneeling in a field before a burly man and a young boy of 10 or less armed with a pistol. 

“Allah has gifted the Islamic State’s security agency with the apprehension of these two spies,” the adult states. “By Allah’s grace, they are now in the custody of the lion cubs of the Caliphate.”

At that point the young boy steps forward and appears to calmly shoot the two men repeatedly in the head.

ISIS has been known to employ child soldiers, which it calls the “lion cubs of the Caliphate.” The video ends with a scene from a previous ISIS propaganda video released in November, showing a training camp for “the next generation” of jihadis. The same boy appears in that video, speaking of his ambitions to grow up to “kill infidels” and identifying himself as “Abdullah” from Kazakhstan.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately return a request for comment about the video. An official with Russia’s Federal Security Service declined to comment when asked about the video by Russia media outlet RIA Novosti. The news agency said the Russian embassy in Damascus also had no comment.

A recent study by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) revealed the growing use of children by ISIS both in its propaganda and in military roles, but this is the first such graphic use of a young child in a public execution.

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New ISIS video appears to show child killing alleged Russian spies

Disabled Russian container ship towed away from British Columbia coast

October 17, 2014: In this aerial photo provided by the Department of National Defense Maritime Forces Pacific, a Canadian Coast Guard helicopter flies near a Russian container ship carrying hundreds of tons of fuel drifting without power in rough seas off British Columbia’s northern coast. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Department of National Defense Maritime Forces Pacific)

PRINCE RUPERT, British Columbia –  A large tug boat was pulling a disabled Russian cargo ship along British Columbia’s coast, ending fears that the vessel carrying hundreds of tons of fuel would drift ashore, hit rocks and spill.

Lt. Paul Pendergast of the Canadian Forces’ Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said the Barbara Foss arrived Saturday evening and the tow of the Simushir was going well.

Pendergast said authorities will wait until the Simushir is comfortably north of Haida Gwaii before they make a decision on where it will be towed. Prince Rupert is the nearest container ship port, 93 nautical miles away.

The Simushir lost power late Thursday off Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, as it made its way from Everett in Washington state to Russia.

The Coast Guard ship Gordon Reid earlier towed the disabled ship away from shore, but a towline got detached and the ship was adrift again for six hours Saturday.

The 10 crew members were trying to repair the broken oil heater that has left the vessel disabled, Royal Canadian Navy Lt. Greg Menzies said.

The fear of oil spills is especially acute in British Columbia, where residents remember the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989. Such worries have fed fierce opposition — particularly from environmentalists and Canada’s native tribes — to a proposal to build a pipeline that would carry oil from Canada’s Alberta oil sands to a terminal in Kitimat, British Columbia, for shipment to Asia. Opponents say the proposed pipeline would bring about 220 large oil tankers a year to the province’s coast.

The president of the Council of the Haida Nation warned Friday that a storm coming into the area was expected to push the ship onto the rocky shore, but President Pete Lantin later said their worst fears had subsided.

“If the weather picks up it could compromise that, but as of right now there is a little sense of relief that we might have averted catastrophe here,” Lantin said.

About 5,000 people live on the islands and fish for food nearby, Lantin said.

The Simushir, which is about 440 feet long, was carrying a range of hydrocarbons, mining materials and other related chemicals. That included 400 tons of bunker oil and 50 tons of diesel.

The vessel is not a tanker but rather a container ship. In comparison, the tanker Exxon Valdez, spilled 35,000 metric tons of oil.

A spokesman for Russian shipping firm SASCO, the owners of the vessel, said it is carrying 298 containers of mining equipment in addition to heavy bunker fuel as well as diesel oil for the voyage.

The U.S. Coast Guard had a helicopter on standby in the event that the crew members need to be pulled off the ship.  Officials said the injured captain was evacuated by helicopter, but they were given no further medical details.

The Simushir is registered in Kholmsk, Russia, and owned by SASCO, also known as Sakhalin Shipping Company, according to the company’s website. The SASCO website says the ship was built in the Netherlands in 1998.

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Disabled Russian container ship towed away from British Columbia coast

Russian ship adrift once again

19 October 2014 Last updated at 02:03 The Simushir’s captain was rescued by helicopter A Russian container ship is adrift once again off the Canadian coast after its line connected to a tow ship became detached.

The Simushir, which is disabled without power, is carrying hundreds of tonnes of fuel and was at risk of running aground when it was closer to shore.

However a coastguard spokesman said the vessel was now far away from the shore and did not pose that risk.

The Russia-bound ship left Washington and lost power on Friday morning.

The Canadian Coast Guard had attached a tow line to the vessel as it was drifting in rough seas off British Columbia.

Efforts to reattach the line to the tugboat are under way, according to the Royal Canadian Navy.

It had originally been feared that the ship might hit Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.

The Canadian coastguards ship the Gordon Reid arrived late on Friday and the tugboat arrived on Saturday to tow the Simushir to Prince Rupert, British Colombia.

The ship had a crew of 11, and after it lost power on Friday the captain was rescued by helicopter.

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Russian ship adrift once again

Wintery Sochi warms up for Russian Games

WITH two days to go for the start of 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which will run through to February 23, the excitement has already reached fever pitch as athletes, heads of states and other dignitaries have started to flow into the Russian city. A colourful opening ceremony is scheduled for Friday. International wire services AP and AFP capture some pre-games activities.

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Wintery Sochi warms up for Russian Games

US condemns Snowden"s Russian asylum

1 August 2013 Last updated at 18:00 ET Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena: “He has left the airport to go to a safe location”

The US has labelled Russia’s decision to grant asylum to fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden as “extremely disappointing”.

The White House is reconsidering a meeting scheduled for next month between President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

The US wants Mr Snowden extradited and tried for leaking secrets.

Mr Snowden, who left a Moscow airport transit zone for the first time since June, thanked Russia for its action.

‘Stab in the back’

Mr Obama had been scheduled to meet Mr Putin on the sidelines of a G20 summit in early September in St Petersburg.

Russian TV broadcast pictures of Edward Snowden leaving the airport

However, White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “We’re extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and in private to have Mr Snowden expelled to the United States to face the charges against him.

“We’re evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this and other issues.”

Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer, an ally of Mr Obama, said Russia’s decision was a “stab in the back” and urged the president to recommend relocating the G20 summit away from Russia.

Former Republican presidential candidate John McCain said there should be “serious repercussions”.

Russia has consistently played down the importance of the issue and insisted relations with the US should be unaffected.

The BBC’s Daniel Sandford in Moscow says relations between the US and Russia were already bad and, after what appears to be a deliberate move by Mr Putin, they have now taken a definite turn for the worse.

Moscow and Washington are already at loggerheads on a number of issues, particularly the Syria conflict, where Russia supports the government and the US backs the rebels.

Mr Snowden, who worked for the CIA and later for a firm contracted to the National Security Agency, leaked documents to journalists showing the extent of the NSA’s snooping programmes.

The stream of stories based on his leaks continued on Thursday with the UK’s Guardian newspaper alleging the US government paid at least £100m ($150m) to the UK’s GCHQ spy agency to secure access to Britain’s spy programmes.

The fugitive left Sheremetyevo Airport at about 14:00 local time (10:00 GMT), according to his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena.

Mr Kucherena said his client “assured me that he is not planning to publish any documents that blacken the American government”.

Mr Putin had earlier said this was a condition for granting any asylum.

Mr Kucherena said Mr Snowden had been given shelter in a private home of American expatriates.

Russia’s Federal Migration Service later confirmed that Mr Snowden had been given asylum for one year.

Edward Snowden’s father Lon: “I am thankful to the Russian people”

Mr Snowden’s presumed final destination is Latin America, but experts were unsure whether he would be able to travel abroad with the Russian travel documents.

Mr Snowden released a statement after leaving the airport thanking Russia, and accusing the US of showing no respect for the law.

Information leaked by Mr Snowden first surfaced in the Guardian and Washington Post newspapers in early June.

It showed that the NSA was collecting the telephone records of millions of Americans.

The systems analyst also disclosed that the NSA had tapped directly into the servers of major internet firms to track online communication in a surveillance programme known as Prism.

Allegations later emerged that the US had spied on its EU allies, and ran huge data-collection operations from Brazil that snooped on Latin American businesses and governments.

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US condemns Snowden"s Russian asylum