Captive British Journalist Looks Frail in New ISIS Propaganda Video

The captive British photojournalist John Cantlie has appeared in a new Islamic State propaganda video purportedly filmed inside the extremist group’s stronghold in Mosul, and his thin, somewhat frail, appearance is already raising fears about his physical health.

The video is the first since March to show Cantlie, who worked for several publications before his 2012 kidnapping, including the Sunday Times, the Sun and the Sunday Telegraph. In the new video, he’s shown criticizing airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition battling ISIS in Iraq and Syria — and, in particular, the bombardments that purport to have demolished Mosul University and a bank near a bustling area of Iraq’s second-largest city. The video was provided to Foreign Policy by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

“If it was a military hard point … perhaps you could understand, but it was simply Mosul’s and in fact, Iraq’s finest university now reduced to a huge pile of rubble,” he said, claiming that 103 people were injured in the strike and 15 killed. “The normal, social everyday life has been completely destroyed.”

In a separate scene, Cantlie is purportedly standing near a demolished bank, claiming that it was destroyed at the hands of the anti-Islamic State coalition.

Cantlie was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 alongside American journalist James Foley, who was later beheaded by the Islamic State. He is widely believed to be starring in the videos under duress, though he often speaks in a confident, sometimes even taunting, manner. He has appeared in several previous propaganda videos in various ISIS-controlled areas, including Aleppo and the Syrian town of Kobani.

You can view a clip of the video here.