ISIS has reportedly killed their hostages from Norway and China. AP.

A picture of the hostages released by ISIS. AP

ISIS has said that they have killed their two hostages from Norway and China. AP. ISIS said the men had been killed after they had been abandoned by their government. Both Norway and China rejected paying ransom for the men. The man from Norway was named Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, and he was a politically philosophy student. The Chinese man was named Fan Jinghui and was described as a wanderer. Both Norway and China condemned the executions. ISIS has a long history of executing Western hostages, and these two men are only the latest to be killed. The announcement that ISIS had killed the men came in their magazine, Dabiq. 

My Comment:

This is a breaking news story and it's one that seems like it is getting mostly ignored by the mainstream media. Much like the execution of the Croatian man in Egypt, executions no longer grab the attention of the media. It's sad to say, but executions have been so common, that they are almost routine now. And ISIS has dominated the news lately with atrocity after atrocity. After the Paris attacks, the destruction of the Russian airliner in Egypt, and the bombings in Lebanon, the execution of a couple of civilians just doesn't rate.

But it should. These men did nothing wrong. It was definitely not wise for either of them to travel to Syria, but that's no excuse for what happened. There is never a good reason to execute innocent men, yet ISIS has done it multiple times. My thoughts go out to these men's family. I had often thought about them after they had gotten captured and held out hope that they would have been released. Until now, I hadn't heard a thing about them. It's like the world forgot about them. Hopefully now, people will remember them. 

I wonder how Norway and China will react to this. They have condemned the executions but I wonder if they won't take actions against ISIS. I don't see either country joining the war by sending in troops or even airstrikes, but perhaps they will send more aid. Both Norway and China are bit players in the Syria drama. Perhaps they will step up their commitment. 

China has always been a wild card in the war against radical Islam. They have avoided joining any of the wars in the Middle East, but that doesn't mean they are free from the threat of Islamic extremism. China has Uyghur Muslims that are leading an insurgency against them. ISIS has also threatened due to that insurgency but until now they haven't been attacked by the organization. That has changed now. 

As for ISIS, add this to the dozens and dozens of crimes that they are guilty of. It's a sad state of affairs where executing two men because they weren't able to get a ransom doesn't even rank in the top ten of ISIS atrocities. Maybe not even the top 100. From executions, to terrorism, to the destruction of ancient relics, ISIS has a lot to answer for. This is just the last in a long line of atrocities. And I doubt it will be the last. 

I do have to say that the way these men was killed was way different then the way ISIS has killed the other hostages. Most of those men were beheaded, but according to the article, these men were shot. Also, no video appears to have been shot, and only pictures have been released. That's a huge difference from the bad old days when ISIS would release horrific videos of the executions. I won't link to the pictures, but I have seen them. They are fairly graphic but compared to the other executions they have done, it seemed rushed and low quality. 

This might be significant. After all, "Jihadi John" the man who was in charge of many of the execution videos, was likely killed after an US led airstrike. Despite being a monster, he was good at his job. Perhaps ISIS is having a hard time replacing him? Maybe they don't have the infrastructure to release execution videos like they have in the past? I might be underestimating the effect that the air war against ISIS has had. After all these execution videos are a recruitment boon for them. Even though they are in the media constantly, they could get even more exposure if they had video. The fact that they didn't have any makes me think that they couldn't pull it off this time. If so, that's a good sign, a rare one in an especially grim few weeks.