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Islamic State Militants Release New Video Featuring Captured British Journalist: Reports

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Islamic State (IS) militants have released a new internet video, where John Cantlie, a British reporter and photojournalist held captive by the group, doubts the effectiveness of US efforts, aimed at eradicating the extremists, according to the Daily Mail.

MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) – Islamic State (IS) militants have released a new internet video, where John Cantlie, a British reporter and photojournalist held captive by the group, doubts the effectiveness of US efforts, aimed at eradicating the extremists, according to the Daily Mail.

"Air power is good at taking out specific targets, but it is not much use at taking and holding ground," Cantlie said as quoted by the Daily Mail Monday.

"For that you need effective and disciplined troops and it is hard to see how this hotch-potch army with a long history of underperforming is going to be any form of credible infantry," the British journalist added.

Cantlie also said that that the arming of Syrian rebels with Western weapons is "largely useless," because many are sold on the black market and end up in the hands of IS fighters.

This is the third time that the IS releases a video, featuring John Cantlie, who was seized in Syria together with US journalist James Foley back in 2012. Foley and another American reporter, Steven Sotloff, were later beheaded by IS militants on camera.

The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting against the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, IS militants launched an offensive in northern and western Iraq.

On September 10, US President Barack Obama unveiled his strategy for defeating the IS, which stipulated forming an international coalition, providing equipment and training to Kurdish and Iraqi forces, as well as Syria's moderate opposition, and conducting airstrikes against IS positions in Syria, while simultaneously continuing airstrikes in Iraq, which the United States authorized in August.

The United Kingdom, Denmark, France and Belgium have joined the United States in conducting airstrikes against the IS in Iraq.

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