Bid to identify Islamic State militants in Peter Kassig execution video
Frenchman thought to be among those behind the execution of US aid worker Peter Kassig
Intensive efforts are under way to identify Islamic State (IS) militants who appeared unmasked in the group's latest execution video, with authorities in Paris naming one as Maxime Hauchard, a French convert to Islam.
Another was tentatively identified as Briton Nasser Muthana by his father, although this was later retracted.
Both men were among knife-wielding IS extremists pictured in a grisly video released at the weekend that showing a beheaded US aid worker and slaughtered Syrian soldiers.
A French prosecutor, Francois Molins, said one of the fighters, a tall, white, bearded militant, was Hauchard, 22, a native of the Normandy region who converted to Islam at 17 and joined extremists in Syria. Hauchard had previously gone to Mauritania but found the situation there "was not sufficiently radical", Molins said in Paris on Monday.
Last year, the prosecutor said, Hauchard left Paris on a flight to Istanbul, Turkey, planning to cross into Syria under the pretext of doing humanitarian work in the war-ravaged nation.
"The humanitarian aspect was just a facade," Molins said.
In July, French news reports said, Hauchard gave an interview from Syria explaining that he had become radicalised via the internet and asserting that "martyrdom" was the goal of all Islamic State recruits.
