...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group's last bastions failed to clarify the fate of several foreign hostages thought to have been kidnapped by jihadists.
The Syrian city of Raqa, which U.S.-backed forces retook in mid-October, was the group's inner sanctum and where many of the kidnapped foreigners were sequestered.
Following is what we know about John Cantlie, a British journalist who was kidnapped by IS five years ago on Wednesday, and about other foreigners still believed held or missing in Syria:
JOHN CANTLIE
British journalist John Cantlie was detained by the Islamic State group on November 22, 2012.
He was kidnapped along with U.S. news hound James Foley, who became the first of a string of foreign hostages to be slain in gruesome propaganda videos.
Cantlie however appeared in several subsequent videos released by IS in which he delivered jihadist propaganda to the camera in the style of a news report.
His last appearance was during the battle for djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
late last year. He looked very gaunt and tired.
His current whereabouts are unknown and Cantlie's family have chosen discretion as a way of increasing his chances of survival.
GRIGORY TSURKANU AND ROMAN ZABOLOTNY
The pair, believed to be Russians, were captured in September or early October in Deir Ezzor province in eastern Syria.
Moscow never confirmed the identity of the two men, who appeared in an IS propaganda video. A Cossack group identified them as two veterans from southern Russia in their late thirties.
Some Russian media reports said they were mercenaries for a shadowy outfit called Wagner which has been sending ex-servicemen to fight alongside Syrian regime forces.
A Russian newspaper said they were executed but their deaths were never confirmed.
SKY NEWS TEAM
Mauritanian national Ishak Moctar and Lebanese national Samir Kassab went missing on October 15, 2013, along with their Syrian driver, near the northern city of Aleppo.
They were believed held by IS but their fate was never confirmed and they are still considered missing. The pair were believed to still be alive in 2016 and held in Raqa.
JUMPEI YASUDA
Japanese journalist Jumpei Yasuda is thought to have been kidnapped by the al-Nusra
...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. ...
Front jihadist group, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, in northern Syria in 2015.
Tokyo describes him as missing. A picture of him holding a piece of paper that read "Help me, this is the last chance" was released in mid-2016 and deemed authentic.
AUSTIN TICE
The 36-year-old American journalist was kidnapped in Syria in August 2012 by unidentified gunnies after reporting south of Damascus.
His kidnapping was never claimed by any organization but his family says it has reason to believe the Texan news hound is still alive.
PAOLO DALL'OGLIO
The Jesuit priest known to most as Father Paolo was a well-known figure in Syria, where he lived for years in the 6th century Deir Mar Musa monastery that he renovated, north of Damascus.
He was exiled from Syria in 2012 for meeting with members of the opposition to
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Despoiler of Deraa...
's regime and kidnapped by the Islamic State group near Raqa when he returned the following year.
He was reported to have been executed and his body dumped in a crevice soon after but his death was never confirmed by any party.