Among the known killings of religious and minority group civilians carried out by ISIL are those in the villages and towns of
Qiiniyeh (70–90 Yazidis killed),
Hardan (60 Yazidis killed),
Sinjar (200–500 Yazidis killed),
Ramadi Jabal (60–70 Yazidis killed),
Dohula (50 Yazidis killed),
Khana Sor (100 Yazidis killed),
Hardan (250–300 Yazidis killed), al-Shamal (dozens of Yazidis killed),
Kocho (400 Yazidis killed and 1,000 abducted),
Jadala (14 Yadizis killed) and Beshir (700 Shia Turkmen killed), and others committed near
Mosul (670 Shia inmates of the Badush prison killed), and in
Tal Afar prison, Iraq (205 Yazidis killed for refusing conversion). creating what
Reporters Without Borders calls "news blackholes" in areas controlled by ISIL. ISIL fighters have reportedly been given written directions to kill or capture journalists. •
James Wright Foley (October 18, 1973 August 19, 2014) was an American freelance journalist and
photojournalist of the
Syrian Civil War when he was abducted on November 22, 2012, in northwestern Syria. Foley was the first American citizen to be killed by "
Jihadi John". James Foley's beheading by ISIL received wide condemnation in the United States. •
Steven Joel Sotloff (May 11, 1983 – September 2, 2014) was an
Israeli-American journalist for
Time magazine and
The Jerusalem Post, although the
Post disavowed any relationship once Sotloff's life was threatened. In 2013, he was kidnapped in
Aleppo, Syria, and was held captive by Islamic militants. On September 2, 2014, a video was released purporting to show "
Jihadi John" beheading Steven Sotloff. • On January 8, 2015, ISIL members in Libya claimed to have executed Tunisian journalists
Sofiene Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari who disappeared in September 2014. • In January 2015 ISIL threatened to kill two Japanese hostages,
Kenji Goto Jogo, a journalist, and Haruna Yukawa (
湯川遥菜), a military company operator, unless a
ransom of 200 million
USD is paid. By the end of the month, the group released another video of the beheading of Goto, in which
Jihadi John proclaimed to Japanese prime minister
Shinzō Abe "because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin."
Aid workers ISIL has also murdered aid workers. •
David Haines (May 9, 1970 – September 13, 2014) was abducted in March 2013 by ISIL while working in Syria for the
humanitarian aid group
Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development assessing the Atmeh
refugee camp near the Turkish border and the Syrian province of
Idlib. A video of the lead-up and aftermath of David Haines' beheading, entitled "A Message to the Allies of America", was released by ISIL on September 13, 2014. • Hervé Gourdel (September 12, 1959 – September 24, 2014) was a French citizen and
mountaineering guide. Gourdel was kidnapped on September 21, 2014, while hiking in the
Djurdjura National Park in Algeria. The following day, an at the time recently formed ISIL affiliate in Algeria,
Jund al-Khilafah, released a video which showed Hervé Gourdel being held hostage. The group threatened to kill Gourdel if the French government continued to conduct
airstrikes against ISIL. On September 24, they carried through on threats to behead him after a 24-hour deadline passed. The beheading was captured in a video titled "A Message of Blood for French Government." •
Alan Henning (August 15, 1967 – October 3, 2014) was a British
humanitarian aid worker. Henning was the fourth Western hostage killed by ISIL. Henning was captured during ISIL's occupation of the Syrian city of
Al-Dana in December 2013, where he was helping with humanitarian relief. The
British Foreign Office withheld news of Henning's capture while they attempted to negotiate his release. Alan Henning was shown at the end of David Haines's beheading video, released on September 13, 2014, and referred to by "
Jihadi John" as the next victim. A video of Henning's beheading was released by ISIL on October 3, 2014. also known by the name Abdul-Rahman Kassig which he assumed in captivity, was 26 years old at the time he was beheaded. He was the adopted child of Ed, a school teacher, and Paula Kassig, a nurse. On October 1, 2013, as he was on his way to
Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria to deliver food and medical supplies to refugees, Kassig was taken captive by ISIL. While in captivity, Kassig – formerly a
Methodist – converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig, sometime between October and December 2013. On October 3, 2014, his parents released a video in which they stressed that his conversion to Islam was not forced, and that his path to conversion began before he was taken captive. The beheading itself was not shown in the video. The
White House later confirmed the person killed was Kassig. • ISIL claimed that U.S. hostage
Kayla Mueller was killed in the Jordanian airstrike on
Raqqa on 5 February 2015. However, some experts believe that she may have been killed before the date of the video's release, in order for ISIL to try to drive a wedge between the U.S. and Jordan by blaming her death on the Jordanian airstrikes. Shortly thereafter President Obama confirmed the death of Mueller by ISIL. • On November 19, 2015, Chinese national Fan Jinghui (
樊京辉) and Norwegian national Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad were murdered by being shot by ISIL, and pictures were released in ISIL's magazine Dabiq. • On June 8, 2020, four Christian Nigerian aid workers and their security guard, Ishaku Yakubu of
Action Against Hunger, Luka Filibus (31) of the
International Rescue Committee, Abdulrahman Dungus (28) of the REACH International Initiative, Abdur-Rahman Bulama a camp manager for the State Emergency Management Agency, and Joseph Prince a security guard with the Alje Security Organization were abducted in Borno State, on June 29 a quality of life video was released however 23 days later another video was released showing their execution by firing squad. ==See also==