© AP Photo / Militant Website, File
The footage, published by Islamic State's propaganda office, showed a militant saying that he is one of approximately five hundred French nationals fighting alongside IS in the Middle East. He added that the message was directed at anyone, who is trying to destroy the group, whether he is French or not.
The IS fighter then fatally shot a Syrian soldier with an assault rifle and threw his body off a cliff. The video was allegedly filmed in the Syrian province of Hama.
The video comes a day after the group released a French addition of its online magazine. Militants praised Yassin Salhi, suspected of beheading his boss and launching a failed suicide-bomber styled attack at a gas factory in the French city of Lyon on late June.
Earlier this year, France was shocked by a series of deadly attacks committed by Islamists in and around Paris. In January, Said and Cherif Kouachi forced their way into the offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, leaving 12 people dead and 11 wounded. The Kouchi brothers allegedly belonged to al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen, said to be the deadliest of them all.
Another gunman Amedi Coulibaly, who pledged allegiance to Islamic State, shot a police officer and took hostages the next day at a kosher supermarket near the Porte de Vincennes. All assailants were subsequently killed by police.
The declaration of US sponsored ISIS may not only serve as an argument for NATO, but also comes in very handy considering recent statements:
"Fmr. NATO Commander Wesley Clark calls for internment camps 'to deal with radicals' in the US and Europe" [Link]