ISIS beheads 21 Christians, Egypt strikes back

A grim week of publicized killings linked to ISIS jihadists culminated on Sunday with a video release showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians who had been captured by militants in Libya.

Notice of the executions sent Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi into an emergency meeting with military commanders. Hours later, as Monday’s dawn broke over North Africa, Egypt announced it had launched airstrikes on its neighbor Libya in retaliation for the murders.

The beheadings followed a familiar formula for ISIS but with multiplied brutality: Militants clad head-to-toe in black marched the captives, each handcuffed and clad in an orange jumpsuit, along a seashore in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, then forced them to kneel and together severed their heads on camera. In the video, the Copts appeared to be praying, steady and faces forward, before the beheadings began. The militant who led the death squad wore desert camo and a khaki mask. He spoke in English with what could be an American accent. English and Arabic subtitles called the videotaped killings “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross.”

Fighters claiming affiliation with ISIS abducted the Coptic Christians in two separate incidents. They kidnapped seven on Dec. 29 as they drove by car to Egypt from the coastal city of Sirte. Then on Jan. 3, armed men raided a building in Sirte where Egyptian workers lived, kidnapping an additional 14 Copts. Workers living in the building told World Watch Monitor at the time the attackers checked the men’s I.D. papers, taking Christians hostage and leaving Muslims. All those kidnapped were day laborers working in Libya from Upper Egypt’s Minya Province.

An Islamic State website carried photos of the captured Egyptians on Jan. 12, and relatives in Egypt identified them. At least 1.5 million Egyptians work low-paying jobs in Libya and have been caught in the chaos and rising violence of a weak central government buffeted by competing militant jihadist groups. The chaos erupted in 2011 when a NATO air campaign to assist rebels led to capturing and killing Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

As with Arab Spring revolutions in Egypt and Syria, the United States supported rebel elements in Libya—and President Barack Obama called for the ouster of Qaddafi as he did heads of state in Egypt and Syria—only to see the rebels overtaken by more lethal Islamic jihadist groups.

In Egypt after President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, a popular uprising coupled with a military ultimatum overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood, and al-Sisi took power. In Syria, the civil war is now four years old, with President Bashar al-Assad clinging to power as ISIS has claimed territory in the north. Yemen, too, has now followed a similar path. The United States on Feb. 11 closed its embassy in Sanaa after the ouster earlier this month of Yemen’s U.S.-backed leader, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Houthi rebels with support from Iran have taken over the government, but face lethal opposition from al-Qaeda factions.

In Libya, the U.S.-backed rebels have struggled to form a government, leaving room for militants to take control of outlying sectors of the country and in recent months to align themselves with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Altogether the chaos has fed ISIS, which in addition to claiming territory in Syria and Iraq, is sprouting affiliates in Yemen, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, even spawning the terror shootings in Paris in January and in Copenhagen this weekend that targeted Jews and satirists of Islam.

The Coptic murders in Libya mark the first such publicized ISIS beheadings outside Iraq or Syria. And the footage in Tripoli may suggest the Islamic State is making headway near Libya’s capital.

The killings also highlight brutal weeks for those caught in the jihadists’ death grip. On Jan. 30, ISIS video showed the beheading of Japanese journalist (and Christian) Kenji Goto, and later showed footage of the live burning of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh. Then on Feb. 6, ISIS announced the death of American aid worker Kayla Mueller, saying she was killed when a Jordanian airstrike struck the building where she was held. Reports suggest countless Kurds and Syrians also have been beheaded, but without the international fanfare.

Egyptian warplanes targeted weapons caches and training camps, according to a statement from an armed forces spokesman on state radio, “to avenge the bloodshed and to seek retribution from the killers.”