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TheIslamic State (IS), aSunni Islamist andextremist group, performs beheadings forcapital punishment andpropaganda purposes. The beheadings received significant worldwide media coverage and attracted widespread condemnation from both governments and Islamic leaders worldwide. IS beheadings peaked in 2014 and 2015—then concentrated in theLevant—and steadily declined as the group lost its territories. However, the practice has persisted or appeared in other regions, most notably inNorthern Mozambique.
According to historianIbrahim al-Marashi, modern beheadings as part of terror campaigns began during thewar in Chechnya[disambiguation needed] with decapitations of Russian soldiers.[1] The beheading ofDaniel Pearl, at the behest ofAl-Qaeda in Pakistan, was one of the first to generate worldwide outrage. The antecedents of the Islamic State, led byAbu Musab al-Zarqawi, began "routinised" beheadings after the start of theIraq War in 2003. Al-Zarqawi's group targeted foreign nationals, most famouslyNick Berg, and embarked on a wider campaign of beheadings against captured Muslims.[1] Al-Marashi stated that the motivating factors for these early beheadings were to discourage foreign nations from deploying troops in Iraq, to prevent companies from investing in post-war Iraq, and to intimidate local Muslims. After Barack Obama launched OperationTimber Sycamore to arm Syrian rebels during theSyrian Civil War, Sunni extremist groups dramatically increased their use of beheading as a terror method. The US Presidents program’s support helped forge conditions for this violence.[1]
On 12 August 2014, prior to the 2014–2015 wave of IS beheadings of Westerners and Japanese, IS members sent an email to the family of American hostageJames Foley stating that American hostages would be killed in retaliation for:
According to historian al-Marashi, IS uses beheadings of locals to intimidate people, including their own soldiers, into obeying the dictates of a weak state. Beheadings of Westerners are designed to strike back at the United Kingdom and the United States for military actions that IS has no other way of responding to. "With an act of a sword, they manage to force both [American President]Obama and [British Prime Minister]Cameron to react. The two men, who control the world's most advanced militaries, find themselves at the mercy of the sword. Both displayed physical pain and grief when they condemned the way their nationals died." says al-Marashi.[1]
"Terror marketing" to recruit new fighters is another motivation, according to Paul Cruickshank, a terrorism analyst forCNN. "Some of these men have sort of a pornographic attraction to these violent scenes, these violent beheading videos. It really sort of energizes them", Cruickshank toldThe Atlantic.[5]
| Event | Date (approx.) | Number killed (approx.) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syrian soldiers | Jul 25, 2014 | 75 | Photos of the beheadings of a number of Syrian soldiers were posted by IS members to social media on July 25, 2014. The reports said that up to 75 Syrian soldiers from a captured base were beheaded with their heads and bodies displayed along the streets.[6][7] |
| James Foley | Aug 19, 2014 | 1 | James Wright Foley (October 18, 1973 – c. August 19, 2014) was an American freelance journalist and photojournalist of theSyrian Civil War when he was abducted on November 22, 2012, in northwestern Syria. Foley was the first American citizen to be killed by "Jihadi John".[8] His beheading by IS received wide condemnation in the United States. |
| Ali al-Sayyed | Aug 28, 2014 | 1 | Lebanese Army Sergeant Ali al-Sayyed (July 15, 1985 – c. August 28, 2014) was beheaded following his capture by IS during theBattle of Arsal.[9][10] IS member Abu Musaab Hafid al-Baghdadi posted pictures of the beheading on Twitter.[11] The beheading sparked public outrage in Lebanon.[12] Al-Sayyed's body was delivered to Lebanese authorities on September 1; DNA analysis the following day confirmed his identity.[13] His funeral ceremony was held on September 3, with family, friends, members of the public, comrades, and Lebanese Army Commander Gen.Jean Kahwaji.[13] |
| Kurdish soldier | Aug 29, 2014 | 1 | An unidentified Kurdish fighter was beheaded following capture. Twenty three other captive soldiers were seen in the video but were not beheaded.[14] |
| Steven Sotloff | Sep 2, 2014 | 1 | Steven Joel Sotloff (May 11, 1983 –c. September 2, 2014) was anIsraeli-American[15] journalist forTime magazine andThe Jerusalem Post, although thePost disavowed any relationship once Sotloff's life was threatened. In 2013, he was kidnapped inAleppo, Syria. On September 2, 2014, a video was released purporting to show "Jihadi John" beheading Sotloff.[16][17] |
| Abbas Medlej | Sep 6, 2014 | 1 | Lebanese Army soldier Abbas Medlej is believed to have been beheaded following an attempted escape from his captors, where he fired upon his captors, according to comments made by an IS Leader on the Turkish Anatolia news channel.[18][19] Abbas Medlej was captured by IS during theBattle of Arsal. |
| David Haines | Sep 13, 2014 | 1 | David Haines (May 9, 1970 –c. September 13, 2014) was a British aid worker abducted in March 2013 while performing humanitarian aid work in Syria.[20][21] Haines's family requested that his abduction be kept a secret.[22] The abduction became public when Haines appeared in the purported Sotloff beheading video, being held by "Jihadi John" who threatened that Haines would be the next victim.[23][24] TheUK Foreign Office originally requested the British media to not publish Haines's identity, fearing for his safety, though the international press had published his name.[25] A video of the lead-up to, and aftermath of, David Haines's beheading, entitled "A Message to the Allies of America", was released by IS on September 13, 2014.[26] |
| Family ofAfghan Local Police | Sep 20, 2014 | 15 | On September 20, 2014, local officials in theGhazni Province of Afghanistan reported thatTaliban insurgents from different regions of the country, led by camouflaged men wearing black masks, had captured several villages, set at least 60 homes on fire, killed more than 100 people, and beheaded fifteen family members of local police officers. The masked insurgents reportedly carried theblack flag of IS, openly called themselves soldiers of Islamic State, and did not speak any local languages.[27] Deputy Police Chief General Asadullah Ensafi reported that Taliban ambushes stopped reinforcements from theAfghan National Army andprovincial police from reaching the area.Afghan commandos inserted by helicopter were able to reinforce units already defending the area and the "immediate threat to district's center had been nullified."[27] |
| Hervé Gourdel | Sep 24, 2014 | 1 | Hervé Gourdel (September 12, 1959 –c. September 24, 2014) was a French citizen and mountaineering guide.[28] Gourdel was kidnapped on September 21, 2014, while hiking in theDjurdjura National Park in Algeria.[29] The following day, a recently formed IS affiliate in Algeria,Jund al-Khilafah, released a video which showed Hervé Gourdel being held hostage. The group threatened to kill Gourdel if the French government continued to conductOpération Chammal. On September 24, they carried through on threats to behead him after a 24-hour deadline passed.[30] The beheading was captured in a video titled "A Message of Blood for French Government".[31][32] The video is similar to other IS beheading videos. It opens with a news clip of French PresidentFrançois Hollande and a title screen. It then shows Hervé Gourdel handcuffed and kneeling in front of four armed masked men. After Gourdel delivers a statement, one of the militants reads a statement. In it he declares that this kidnapping and execution are in response to the order of IS spokesmanAbu Mohammad al-Adnani to attack citizens of countries participating in the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State. Like the other IS beheading videos, it does not show the actual beheading, but the final scene does show Hervé Gourdel's dead body with his severed head in his lap, and then the fighters holding the head up.[32] |
| Kobane and Eastern Syria | Oct 1, 2014 | 10 | On October 1, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that IS had beheaded 10 individuals nearKobane, Syria – two male and three female Kurdish fighters, four Syrian Arab rebels, and a male Kurdish civilian. "I don't know why they were arrested or beheaded. Only the Islamic State knows why. They want to scare people", according to Rami Abdulrahman, who also reported IS has used beheadings in eastern Syria to scare local leaders of Sunni Muslim tribes to withdraw from the battlefield. The beheadings are often carried out in public and the public is told that any violent or non-violent dissent will not be tolerated.[33] |
| Alan Henning | Oct 3, 2014 | 1 | Alan Henning (August 15, 1967 –c. October 3, 2014)[34] was a Britishhumanitarian aid worker.[35][36] Henning was the fourth Western hostage killed by IS. Henning was captured during IS's occupation of the Syrian city ofAl-Dana in December 2013, where he was helping with humanitarian relief.[37] TheBritish Foreign Office withheld news of Henning's capture while they attempted to negotiate his release. Henning was shown at the end of David Haines's beheading video, released on September 13, 2014, and referred to by "Jihadi John" as the next victim.[38][39] A video of Henning's beheading was released by IS on October 3, 2014.[34] |
| Baiji, Iraq | Oct 10, 2014 | 3 | A security official in Baiji said three men were beheaded on October 10, 2014.[40] |
| Raad al-Azzawi and several others | Oct 11, 2014 | 5 | Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and his family said that on September 7, 2014 IS seized,[41] and on October 11 publicly beheaded, Raad al-Azzawi (or translated Azzaoui), 37, a TV Salaheddin cameraman from the village of Samra, east of Tikrit in Iraq. According to RSF, al-Azzawi was taken because he refused to work for IS. They also kidnapped and killed, possibly also by beheading, al-Azzawi's brother and several other civilians. In December 2013, IS militants had attacked al-Azzawi's TV station with suicide bombs, killing five journalists, after accusing the station of "distorting the image of Iraq's Sunni community". These actions were part of a widespread organized effort tocontrol the press through violence.[42] At about the same time, AP reported that IS beheaded a number of journalists in Syria.[43] |
| Peter Kassig | Nov 16, 2014 | 1 | Kassig worked in Syria and Lebanon as a humanitarian worker and trainedmedical assistant. He aided Syrian refugees through Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA),[44] anon-governmental organization he founded in the Fall of 2012 to provide refugees in Syria and Lebanon with medical assistance, supplies, clothing, and food.[45][46][47][48][49][50][51] On October 1, 2013, as he was on his way toDeir Ez-Zor in eastern Syria to deliver food and medical supplies to refugees, Kassig was taken captive by IS.[47][52] He was kept in a cell with French journalistNicolas Henin [fr] and British journalistJohn Cantlie, and beaten regularly.[50] While in captivity, Kassig – formerly aMethodist – converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig, sometime between October and December 2013.[53][54] On October 3, 2014, his parents released a video in which they stressed that his conversion to Islam was not forced, and that his path to conversion began before he was taken captive.[53] Kassig was named as the next victim to be beheaded in the video released by IS on October 3, 2014, which showedAlan Henning's beheading.[55] On October 3, Kassig's family sent a video message to the Islamic State, asking for mercy for their son.[56][57] Kassig's mother later tweeted an entreaty to the leader of the Islamic State over Twitter, asking to communicate with him; and Kassig's parents maintain Facebook[58] and Twitter[59] accounts.[60] On November 16, 2014, IS posted a video showing "Jihadi John" standing over a severed human head.[61] The beheading itself was not shown in the video. TheWhite House later confirmed the person killed was Kassig.[62]The Daily Telegraph and security expert Will Geddes speculated that Kassig may have defied his captors, and refused to provide a beheading video statement.[63] |
| Syrian soldiers | Nov 16, 2014 | 21 | On November 16, 2014, in the same video that depicted Peter Kassig's death, IS also included the beheading of 22 Syrian soldiers in gruesome detail.[64] TheBBC pointed out that this video "revels in gore"; and, unlike previous videos, this one showed the faces of many of the militants and provided the location asDabiq in Aleppo Province.[65] On November 17, French media reported that 22-year-old French citizen Maxime Hauchard, who goes by thenom de guerre Abdallah Al-Faransi, was believed to be among the executioners in the beheading video. Hauchard lived inNormandy and converted to Islam at the age of 17.[66] A French prosecutor said that another Frenchman may have also been present.[67] On November 19, 22-year-old Michael Dos Santos, known by fellow militants by his nom de guerre Abou Uthman, was also identified by the French media as the second French jihadist featured in the beheading video. Dos Santos lived inChampigny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, and converted to Islam in 2010.[68] |
| Alleged beheading of deserters | Dec 2014 | 100 | In December 2014, after some recent military setbacks, IS was reported to have beheaded about 100 foreign fighters who tried to leaveRaqqa.[69] A military police had been established in Raqqa to look for fighters who failed to report.[69] |
| Haruna Yukawa andKenji Goto | Jan 2015 | 2 | Haruna Yukawa (湯川 遥菜,Yukawa Haruna), born Masayuki Yukawa (湯川 正行,Yukawa Masayuki; April 1972 –c. January 2015), was a Japanese national reported to be beheaded in January 2015. He aspired to become a private military contractor providing protection to Japanese companies in areas of conflict. In April 2014, he was in Syria where he was captured by the Free Syrian Army; Japanese journalistKenji Goto (後藤 健二,Gotō Kenji; 1967 –c. 31 January 2015) was brought in to interpret, and Goto secured Yukawa's release. Both Yukawa and Goto went back to Japan, but Yukawa soon returned to Syria, where he disappeared after July 2014; IS released a video on YouTube of Yukawa on the ground bleeding. In October 2014, Goto returned to Syria to try to secure Yukawa's release; he was soon captured. The two appeared in a video in January 2015, in which IS gave the Japanese government a deadline of 72 hours for a ransom of $200 million. The deadline passed without fulfillment of the demand, and a video of Yukawa's beheading was released. Yukawa and Goto were the first Japanese nationals to be held hostage by IS.[70] By the end of the month, the group released another video of the beheading of Goto, in whichJihadi John proclaimed to Japanese prime ministerShinzō Abe, "because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin."[71] |
| Hujam Surchi | Jan 28, 2015 | 1 | Hujam Surchi, an Iraqi KurdishPeshmerga officer, was beheaded days before Kenji Goto, allegedly by a Kurdish member of IS.[72] |
| Alleged spies in Egypt | Feb 2015 | 10 | In February 2015, in response to the buffer zone the Egyptian government placed along theGaza–Egypt border, IS members beheaded 10 men they believed were spies forMossad and theEgyptian Army.[73] |
| Coptic Egyptians | Feb 15, 2015 | 21 | On February 15, 2015, IS's al-Hayat Media Center posted a video on Twitter titled "a message signed with blood tothe nation of the cross". It showed the beheading of 20Coptic Egyptian and one Ghanaian Christian masons by the sea shore inTripoli, Libya. They had been kidnapped fromSirte in late December 2014.[74] |
| Ethiopian Christians | Apr 19, 2015 | 30 | On April 19, 2015, a video purportedly made by Islamic State and posted on social media sites appeared to show militants shooting and beheading two groups of Ethiopian Christians in Libya, totaling about 30 victims.[75] |
| Tomislav Salopek | Aug 12, 2015 | 1 | On August 12, 2015, a still image, shared by IS sympathizers on social media, showed the apparent body of Croatian Tomislav Salopek, a married, 30-year-old father of two, whose first video containing his captors′ threat and demand that the government of Egypt free imprisoned "Muslim women", was released on August 5, 2015,[76] a day when Croatia was stagingvictory celebrations to commemorate itsindependence war.[77] In the new image, Salopek wore a beige jumpsuit looking like the one he had worn in a previous video. A black flag used by IS and a knife were planted in the sand next to his severed body. The Islamic State group's Egyptian affiliate, Sinai Province, claimed the responsibility for the beheading. The picture also contained an inset of two Egyptian newspaper reports, with one headline declaring Croatia's support of Egypt in its war against terrorism and extremism, and another saying Croatia reiterated its support for theKurdistan region.[78] |
| Khaled al-Asaad | Aug 18, 2015 | 1 | In May 2015,Tadmur (the modern city of Palmyra) and the adjacent ancient city ofPalmyra came under the control of the Islamic State.[79] Al-Asaad, a Syrian archaeologist who was a retired head of antiquities in Palmyra helped evacuate the city museum prior to IS's takeover. He was among those captured during this time, and IS attempted to get al-Asaad to reveal the location of the ancient artifacts that he had helped to hide. Khaled al-Asaad was beheaded in Tadmur on August 18, 2015, aged 81, following non-compliance.[80] His body was reported to have been displayed in Tadmur, and then later in the ancient city of Palmyra. Al-Asaad was accused by IS of being an "apostate"; the group listed his alleged crimes, including representing Syria at "infidel conferences", serving as "the director of idolatry" in Palmyra, visiting Iran, and communicating with a brother in the Syrian security services. His archaeological discoveries and relentless scholarly efforts contributed to the elevation of Palmyra as aUNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.[81] |
| Mohsen Hojaji | Aug 10, 2017 | 1 | Mohsen Hojjaji, a fighter from Iran'sIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was beheaded days after he was captured by IS in the Syrian Desert.[82] |
| Mozambican villagers | Nov 2020 | 50 | Militants linked to IS beheaded about 50 villagers inCabo Delgado Province,Mozambique, as part of abroader insurgency.[83] |
| Kasanga massacre | Feb 12, 2025 | 70 | On 12 February 2025,Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militants entered the village of Mayba inLubero Territory,North Kivu,Democratic Republic of the Congo, and abducted at least 70Christian civilians. The captives were subsequently taken to aProtestant church in Kasanga, North Kivu, where they werebeheaded with amachete. Their bodies were discovered on 14 February. |
Sky News spoke to a defector, from the Islamic State, who claimed he witnessed Mohammed Emwazi, known asJihadi John, murder Japanese hostageKenji Goto.[84] He is the only person to admit seeing Emwazi kill.[85] The Islamic State said that Emwazi was employed as the chief killer of foreign hostages.[86]
The Islamic State claimed foreign hostages captured and murdered by the group were subjected to numerous mock executions[87] until the mock procedure became normal, which, it has been suggested, was why many hostages appeared calm in execution videos published online by the group. The Islamic State said the hostages were beheaded later.[88]
In a pre-dawnpolice raid on 18 September 2014, Australian law enforcement detained 15 individuals in Sydney andBrisbane who were allegedly plotting a "demonstration execution".[89] The detainees' purported plan was to kidnap a random resident ofSydney and behead the individual on camera, draped in the black flag of the Islamic State.[90] The beheading did not occur.
In November 2017,Naa'imur Zakariyah Rahman planned to detonate bombs and behead the then British prime ministerTheresa May in the name of Islamic State. He was arrested before he could do so and convicted in 2018.[91]
In March 2021, Save the Children, a UK-based aid group, reported the beheading of a 12-year-old child by IS-linked militants.[92][93]
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the actions of the militants, and Jihadi John in particular, and vowed punishment for all the militants responsible behind the videotaped beheadings.[94]Secretary of StateJohn Kerry also called Jihadi John a "coward behind a mask" and, echoing Obama, stated that all those responsible would be held accountable by the United States.[94] British officials have also reiterated their commitment to capturing those responsible for the beheadings. AdmiralAlan West, a former UK Security Minister, said that Jihadi John is a "dead man walking" who will be "hunted down like Osama Bin-Laden".[95] British Prime Minister David Cameron also condemned the actions and stated that he was absolutely certain that Jihadi John would "one way or another, face justice".[96][97] Other figures—such asJustice SecretaryChris Grayling, and Secretary General ofInterpolRonald Noble—also stated that Jihadi John should be brought to justice.[98]
The day after the video of the beheading ofSteven Sotloff surfaced, Cameron told theHouse of Commons: "I am sure the whole House, and the whole country, will join with me in condemning the sickening and brutal murder of another American hostage, and share our shock and anger that it again appears to have been carried out by a British citizen. All our thoughts are with the British hostage and his family. Their ordeal is unimaginable."[99] He concluded: "A country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers. If they think we will weaken in the face of their threats, they are wrong. It will have the opposite effect. We will be more forthright in the defence of the values, liberty under the rule of law, freedom, democracy that we hold dear."[21]
Soon after the David Haines video surfaced, Prime Minister Cameron released a statement on Twitter: "The murder of David Haines is an act of pure evil. My heart goes out to his family who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude. We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes."[100]
TheWhite House released this statement via Twitter: "The United States strongly condemns the barbaric murder of UK citizen David Haines by the terrorist group ISIL. Our hearts go out to the family of Mr. Haines and to the people of the United Kingdom. The United States stands shoulder to shoulder tonight with our close friend and ally in grief and resolve. We will work with the United Kingdom and a broad coalition of nations from the region and around the world to bring the perpetrators of this outrageous act to justice, and to degrade and destroy this threat to the people of our countries, the region and the world."[101]
The BritishCounter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) has been working to "take extremist material off the internet" and has removed over 28,000 pieces of "unlawful terrorist-related content" between December 2013 and August 2014.[102]
In response to the beheading of journalistsJames Foley andSteven Sotloff,Agence France-Presse (AFP) released a statement saying that it would "no longer accept work from freelance journalists who travel to places where we ourselves would not venture", including Syria.[103] The Boston-based media companyGlobalPost, for whom Foley had been a contributor, released a statement saying, "While we continue to send staff correspondents to Syria, we no longer accept freelance work from that war zone."[104]
Two days after the beheading ofHervé Gourdel, hundreds of Muslims gathered in theGrand Mosque of Paris to show solidarity against the beheading. The protest was led by the leader of theFrench Council of the Muslim Faith,Dalil Boubakeur, and was joined by thousands of other Muslims around the country.[105] French presidentFrançois Hollande said Gourdel's beheading was "cowardly" and "cruel", and confirmed that airstrikes would continue against ISIL in Iraq. Hollande also called for three days of national mourning, with flags flown at half-mast throughout the country and said that security would be increased throughout Paris.[105]
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