French authorities on Wednesday identified a second French citizen as taking part in a video that showed the murder of American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig. The anti-terrorist unit of the Paris Prosecutor's office issued a communique confirming the identity of the second Frenchman in a group of 16 executioners as Michael dos Santos, 22, from Champigny sur Marne, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris.
Dos Santos is known to French intelligence services following an investigation into a network to recruit French nationals for jihad in Syria, the prosecutors office said. On Monday, Maxime Hauchard was the first Frenchman identified in the video showing a collective execution of Syrian prisoners, as well as the killing of western hostage Peter Kassig.
The video, released Sunday, showed the severed head of Kassig and the beheadings of more than a dozen Syrian soldiers. Dos Santos, like Hauchaud, grew up in a French family and converted to Islam via the Internet. The men seemed to have been recruited in 2013, when a large number of young Frenchmen left for Syria, officials said. Their names popped up in an investigation when French police dismantled a recruitment network.
More than 1,600 French nationals are involved with ISIS, including 376 in the combat zone, French officials have said.
IN-DEPTH
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