Paris • The cold-eyed militants lined up behind their victims in the latest Islamic State video appear to come from outside the Middle East, including one from France and possibly two from Britain, as the extremist group tries to achieve a global reach.
The grisly video — clearly aimed at a Western audience — lingers as much on the faces of the camouflaged extremists as the men who are beheaded. The victims include American aid worker Peter Kassig and more than a dozen Syrian soldiers.
The images of the Islamic State militants, who are shown one by one in close-up, allowed authorities to identify one of them Monday as a 22-year-old Frenchman who converted to radical Islam.
Maxime Hauchard has been on the radar of French authorities since 2011 when he took two trips to Mauritania to attend a Quranic school, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins. The prosecutor said investigators were trying to determine if another Frenchman was also in the video.
The overwhelming majority of Islamic State fighters are from the Mideast, but Europe appears to be a fertile ground to find supporters, with officials saying thousands of young Europeans have headed off to jihad. More than 1,000 people in France alone are under surveillance for suspected plans to join the militants, officials said.
In the video released Sunday, some of the knife-wielding extremists standing behind their kneeling victims had distinctly Asian features. Another whose face was hooded had the familiar London accent of the jihadi who also appeared in beheading videos with American hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and with British hostages David Haines and Alan Henning. There also were indications that a Welsh medical student may be the man standing next to Hauchard.
"It's quite transparent that IS is trying to exaggerate its base of support," said Charlie Winter, a researcher at the Quilliam Foundation in London. "They are trying to show that Muslims from all over the world are protecting their Syrian brethren and their Iraqi brethren."
European officials are trying just as furiously to counter that message.
"I call solemnly and seriously on all our citizens, and notably our young people who are the primary target of the terrorist propaganda, to open your eyes to the terrible reality of the actions of Daesh," said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State. "These are criminals who are building a system of barbarity."
Hauchard gave an interview to France's BFM television in July, telling the network he had helped capture Mosul, the Iraqi city whose fall eventually prompted the United States to resume military operations in Iraq.
"We're waiting for death," Hauchard said. "My objective is to be a martyr."
A man from Wales, Ahmed Muthana, said he thinks he saw his son, 20-year-old Nasser Muthana, in the latest video. Winter, the British researcher, confirmed the likeness.
Kassig had gone to Syria on a humanitarian mission. His parents, Ed and Paula Kassig, said Monday that while their hearts have been shattered by his death, they believe his life is proof that "one person can make a difference."
"In 26 years, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand more of the harsh realities of life than most of us can imagine," Paula Kassig said in Indianapolis, reading a brief statement. "But rather than letting the darkness overwhelm him, he has chosen to believe in the good — in himself and in others.
As for the French militant in the video, Molins said he had used aid work as a pretext.
"The humanitarian action was a facade. In fact, he wanted to fight and join Islamic State agents," Molins said.
With Kassig's death, the Islamic State has killed five Westerners it was holding.
Unlike previous videos of slain Western hostages, the latest one did not show the decapitation of Kassig, the moments leading up to his death or threaten to kill any other Western hostages.
It identified the militants' location as Dabiq, a town in northern Syria that the Islamic State uses as the title of its English-language propaganda magazine and where they believe an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and their enemies will occur.
The high-definition video also showed the beheadings of about a dozen men identified as Syrian military officers and pilots, all dressed in blue jumpsuits.
Secretary of State John Kerry said the Islamic State could grow worldwide if left unchecked. Already, he said, the IS has seized more land and resources "than al-Qaida ever had on its best day of its existence."
IS "leaders assume that the world will be too intimidated to oppose them," Kerry said. "But let us be clear: We are not intimidated."
FILE - In this Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014, file photo, Little League pitcher Mo'ne Davis throws out the ceremonial first pitch prior to a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals, in Los Angeles. Publisher Harper Collins told The Associated Press on Monday, Nov. 17, 2014, that "Mo'ne Davis: Remember My Name" will be released next March by HarperCollins Children's Books. Davis, an honor roll student from Philadelphia, became a sensation last summer after leading the Taney Dragons to a 4-0 victory over Nashville, when she was just 13. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
FILE - In this August 2013 file photo provided by the Kassig Family, Peter Kissig, who friends and family say changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig, right, works as a medic to help a wounded man near Deir Ezzor, Syria. A new graphic video purportedly produced by Islamic State militants in Syria released Sunday Nov. 16, 2014 claims U.S. aid worker Kassig was beheaded. (AP Photo/Courtesy Kassig Family, File)
This undated photo provided by the Kassig Family shows Peter Kassig delivering supplies for Syrian refugees. A new graphic video purportedly produced by Islamic State militants in Syria released Sunday Nov. 16, 2014 claims U.S. aid worker Kassig was beheaded. (AP Photo/Courtesy Kassig Family)
This still image taken from an undated video published on the Internet by the Islamic State group militants and made available, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014 shows a militant that the French government say is Frenchman Maxime Hauchard . Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said there is a "strong presumption" that Maxime Hauchard is among the group of Islamic extremist fighters in the video released over the weekend. He urged young people in France to "open your eyes to the terrible reality" of the militant group. The high-definition video shows the beheadings of about a dozen men identified as Syrian military officers and pilots, all dressed in blue jumpsuits. The Associated Press could not independently verify the footage, though it appeared on websites used in the past by the Islamic State group, which now controls a third of Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo)
In this Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014 photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency, Kuwait ruling emir Sheik Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, center, greets Saudi King Abdullah as the rulers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council member-states met in an emergency session in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In a statement released early Monday Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain said they will reinstate their ambassadors to Qatar after withdrawing them in an unprecedented move eight months ago. State media and government-linked commentators across the Gulf had been calling for an end to the diplomatic spat in the face of emerging threats from the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. (AP Photo/SPA)
In this undated photo provided by the Kassig family, Peter Kassig, is shown with his maternal grandparents. His grandfather, a co-founder of Christians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East, was an advocate for Palestinians in their struggle for a homeland. The Islamic State group released a graphic video on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014, in which a black-clad militant claimed to have beheaded U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig, who was providing medical aid to Syrians fleeing the civil war when he was captured inside Syria on Oct. 1, 2013. His friends say he converted to Islam in captivity and took the first name Abdul-Rahman. (AP Photo/Courtesy Kassig Family)
FILE - In this Jan. 15, 2011 file photo, the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team practices at Lasker rink in New York's Central Park. ice rink is closed for the season, leaving skaters and hockey players searching for an alternative. An announcement on the Lasker Rinks Website says the facility will be closed for the 2014-2015 skating season because its refrigeration plant must be replaced. The rink at the northern side of Central Park has been formally known as Trump Lasker Rink since Donald Trump took over running it in 2001. Managers of the rink did not return a call seeking comment Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins addresses the media in Paris, France, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. A Paris prosecutor says that a French 22-year-old convert to radical Islam appears in a video showing a beheaded American aid worker and the deaths of Syrian soldiers. Molins identified the man as Maxime Hauchard, and said that he has been on the radar of French authorities since he left for Syria in 2013 under cover of humanitarian action. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins addresses the media in Paris, France, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. A Paris prosecutor says that a French 22-year-old convert to radical Islam appears in a video showing a beheaded American aid worker and the deaths of Syrian soldiers. Molins identified the man as Maxime Hauchard, and said that he has been on the radar of French authorities since he left for Syria in 2013 under cover of humanitarian action. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins addresses the media in Paris, France, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. A Paris prosecutor says that a French 22-year-old convert to radical Islam appears in a video showing a beheaded American aid worker and the deaths of Syrian soldiers. Molins identified the man as Maxime Hauchard, and said that he has been on the radar of French authorities since he left for Syria in 2013 under cover of humanitarian action. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
This still image taken from an undated video published on the Internet by the Islamic State group militants and made available, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014, purports to show extremists marching Syrian soldiers before beheading them. The high-definition video later shows the beheadings of about a dozen men identified as Syrian military officers and pilots, all dressed in blue jumpsuits. The Associated Press could not independently verify the footage, though it appeared on websites used in the past by the Islamic State group, which now controls a third of Syria and Iraq. (AP Photo)
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