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Isis propaganda video shows prisoner 'forced to dig his own grave' before he is beheaded

The gruesome footage has been released via the terror group's media arms

Heather Saul
Saturday 30 May 2015 07:52 BST
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Masked Isis fighters march through the Syrian city of Raqqa
Masked Isis fighters march through the Syrian city of Raqqa (AP)

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Isis has released a disturbing propaganda video purporting to show a prisoner digging his own grave with a shovel before being brutally beheaded by a militant.

The highly-produced video shows a man dressed in an orange jump suit digging a hole in the ground in an unknown location.

It bears all the typical hallmarks of official Isis propaganda, such as the black flag in the corner and the Nasheed playing in the background. The terror group regularly releases footage of atrocities committed by fighters in areas under its self-declared 'caliphate' in Syria and Iraq.

The man, who speaks in Arabic and is clearly under duress, says his name is Ziad Abdel’al Abu Tarek. He says he is from the Syrian town of Al-Qaryatayn and then ‘admits’ to working as a spy for Isis and killing a man named as Abdu Hassan.

The man is seen digging his own grave
The man is seen digging his own grave

Abu Tarek continues to dig before a white van transporting a militant arrives. He is seen kneeling before the fighter, at which point the video fades to show the aftermath of the purported beheading.

The gruesome video comes after Isis published distressing footage of what it claimed was a prisoner being killed by a bazooka in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

Militants who seized the historic border town of Palmyra last week rounded up civilians and forced them to watch the execution of 20 men in the city’s ancient amphitheatre, according to reports from a Syrian monitoring group.

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