ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – John Cantlie, a British journalist taken hostage by the Islamic State who has appeared as a reporter in several ISIS videos, features in a new release by the Amaq News Agency, which is linked with the militant group. “Hello, I'm John Cantlie, and today we're in Mosul in Iraq,” begins the video, titled John Cantlie Talks about the American Airstrikes on Media Kiosks in Mosul City. The video is dated March 19, 2016 though it is unknown when it was actually filmed. In the three-and-a-half minute video, Cantlie speaks of the Americans’ $5 billion campaign against ISIS which, he states, has succeeded in wiping out a $50 shack. “There's not much to look at because it cost about $50 to build, and now it's been flattened by the collective might of the American war machine,” Cantlie states in the video. “And one has to ask oneself – why bother?” Cantlie was kidnapped, along with fellow journalist James Foley, in Syria in November 2012. Foley was killed by ISIS on August 19, 2014. This is the fourth ISIS video to feature Cantlie as a journalist. In the video, Cantlie appears to be standing in the middle of a busy traffic roundabout surrounded by homes and shops in the middle of the day, next to the ruins of a small structure. The media kiosk was a distribution site for ISIS pamphlets that provided information about the organization and “serve(d) to expose some of the lies and propaganda the Western media continues to peddle in their never-ending mission to tarnish the image of the Islamic State,” Cantlie reports. He asserts that the attack on the kiosk shows a lack of American intelligence and demonstrates the failure of the coalition forces’ air campaign against ISIS. He highlights that the kiosk was surrounded by civilians who now have to do repairs to their homes and shops that were damaged by the bombing. “Such attacks prove the failed strategy of the American air campaign if this is all they can target. And the risks to Mosul's population are enormous. These kiosks are in the heart of the ancient city. They are located in some of the busiest residential and shopping areas like this one.” The video appears to cut off abruptly, as if unfinished. Cantlie has appeared in three other ISIS videos, depicted as a journalist rather than a hostage. The three earlier videos were a series: Inside ‘Ayn al Islam (Kobani), published on October 28, 2014, Inside Mosul, published on January 3, 2015, and Inside Aleppo published on February 9, 2015. In the three Inside videos, Cantlie appears as a journalist, reporting on what he describes as failures in the American and coalition forces campaign against ISIS. In the Aleppo video, Cantlie stated that it would be the final video in the series. The video released today is not of the same Inside series. In it, Cantlie is dressed in black and appears noticeably thinner.
