A group affiliated with the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for a vicious mass execution that claimed the lives of eleven Christian aid workers.
The killings were carried out as a retaliation against the killing of leader Bakr al-Baghdadi, who blew himself up after being cornered during a raid by U.S. special forces at the end of October.
The militant group known as the Islamic State in West Africa Province released a gruesome minute-long video of the shooting of one man followed by the beheading of 10 others.
“This message is to the Christians in the world,” a man featured in the video explains, as reported by the New York Times. “Those who you see in front of us are Christians, and we will shed their blood as revenge for the two dignified sheikhs, the caliph of the Muslims, and the spokesman for the Islamic State, Sheikh Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir, may Allah accept them.”
The murders, which took place the day after Christmas, were strategically planned in order to distress the Christian community, according to experts.
Several reports indicate that the men were taken hostage in Maiduguri and Damaturu in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, which has been the epicenter of an increase in Islamic militia-led violence over recent years.
In response to the killings, President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted that Nigerians should “under no circumstance, let the terrorists divide us by turning…
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