Third IS video featuring John Cantlie released

ISLAMIC STATE (IS) has released a third propaganda video in which British journalist John Cantlie, a hostage of the terrorist organisation, criticises Obama and the US’s strategy against the jihadists.

In the recording, which lasts for five and a half minutes, Cantlie is seen to be made to introduce himself as ‘the British citizen abandoned by his government and held by the Islamic State.’

During the video, the hostage analyses a speech made by Obama on the thirteenth anniversary of September 11.

IS considers the speech to be ‘disappointingly predictable’ in its placement of the Americans as the ‘good guys’ and IS as the ‘bad guys.’

Responding to President Obama’s promise in the speech to ‘destroy IS by using a combination of air and ground forces’ IS uses Cantlie to say that Obama and his army are welcome to try.

As in previous videos, Cantlie is dressed in the striking Guantanamo Bay-style orange overalls, and sits at a desk with a black background behind him.

This is the third video in which Cantlie, who was kidnapped by IS in November 2012, has appeared in as many weeks.

Since August, the terrorist organisation has published the video footage of the decapitations of three Western hostages: the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, together with the British aid worker David Haines.

The fate of former taxi driver Alan Henning remains in the balance as the West steps up airstrikes in the area of conflict.