Islamic State releases new video of beheading of alleged Russian spy

Cairo (dpa) - A video circulated Wednesday on social media has shown the Islamic State militia beheading an alleged Russian spy captured earlier by a group of fighters in Syria.The 7.42-minute video released by Islamic State in the northern Raqqa province, the group‘s stronghold in Syria, shows the man sitting in an orange jumpsuit while confessing to his recruitment by the Russian intelligence service.Speaking in Russian, he said that he was ordered by Russian intelligence to travel to Syria and gather information about the terrorist group, adding that before that, he lived in Chechnya.The video was subtitled in Arabic.In the video, the man said he had been in Syria since August 2014. Yet it was not immediately clear when exactly Islamic State militants seized him. Afterwards, a Russian-speaking militant addresses Moscow, warning that Russia‘s forces will be defeated and killed.The video could not be independently verified by dpa.This is the first video Islamic State has released about alleged Russian spies since Russia began its airstrikes in Syria against the group on September 30.In January, the group released a video purporting to show a young boy shooting dead two men accused of working for Russian intelligence services.Islamic State has taken control of large parts of Syria and Iraq, ruling them as a self-declared "caliphate."