LONDON (AP) — Britain’s prime minister says Islamic State terrorists pose a “massive” security threat that cannot be ignored.
David Cameron says the extremists who beheaded two American journalists and now a British aid worker “are not Muslims, they are monsters.”
He spoke after an emergency meeting of his military and security chiefs. Cameron didn’t announce any new military measures but said British forces will continue offering logistical help to U.S. forces and that counterterrorism efforts will increase because of threats to Britain.
The Islamic State group released a video late yesterday showing the beheading of David Haines. The 44-year-old was kidnapped in Syria in March of last year when he was working for the French aid group Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development. He had also worked for groups such as Handicap International, which helps the disabled during conflicts, and Nonviolent Peaceforce, which sends unarmed peacekeepers into conflict zones.
Haines had previously been in Libya during its civil war and South Sudan.
Cameron says Haines was a “British hero.”
%@AP Links
097-a-08-(British Prime Minister David Cameron, at news conference)-“embodiment of evil”-Prime Minister David Cameron says aid worker David Haines is a British hero. (14 Sep 2014)
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091-a-18-(British Prime Minister David Cameron, at news conference)-“a British hero”-British Prime Minister David Cameron pays tribute to the aid worker David Haines who was held hostage and beheaded by the Islamic State. ((note length of cut)) (14 Sep 2014)
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092-a-18-(British Prime Minister David Cameron, at news conference)-“of our allies”-British Prime Minister David Cameron says the British government will “hunt down those responsible” for the death of British aid worker David Haines. ((note length of cut)) (14 Sep 2014)
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APPHOTO NY122: EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – This image made from video posted on the Internet by Islamic State militants and provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism watchdog, on Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014, purports to show British aid worker David Haines before he was beheaded. The video emerged hours after the family of Haines issued a public plea on Saturday urging his captors to contact them. The 44-year-old Haines was abducted in Syria in 2013 while working for an international aid agency. (AP Photo) (13 Sep 2014)
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APPHOTO LON810: Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, makes a statement to the media on the killing of British aid worker David Haines in Downing Street, central London, Sunday Sept. 14, 2014. In an emotional statement after chairing a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee to discuss the killing, he hailed David Haines as a “British hero” and vowed to “hunt down those responsible and bring them to justice no matter how long it takes.” (AP Photo/PA, John Stillwell) UNITED KINGDOM OUT NO SALES NO ARCHIVE (14 Sep 2014)
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