IS: We killed 11 Christians in Nigeria to avenge death of our leaders

The Islamic State has released a video, claiming to have killed 11 Christians in Nigeria.

The video, released on December 26, is said to be timed to coincide with Christmas celebrations.

The 56-second video was produced by Amaq, IS’ news agency. It was filmed in an unidentified outdoor area.

The video showed 13 hostages, 11 said to be Christians while the remaining were Muslims. The group claimed that they spared the lives of two of the Muslims.

IS said it was part of its revenge against the killing of its leaders after failure to negotiate their release.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS’s late leader and Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir, its spokesman, were killed in Syria in late October.

The insurgent claimed the victims were “captured in the past weeks in north-eastern Borno state”.

“We killed them as revenge for the killings of our leaders, including Abu bakr al-Baghdadi and Abdul-Hasan Al-Muhajir in Iraq and Syria,” the group was quoted to have said.

However, details of the victims, who were all male, were not given.

Last week, insurgents had mounted a checkpoint on the road to Monguno local government area, killing some victims and abducting others.

Earlier in the month, four abducted aid workers of the Action Against Hunger, an international non-government organisation, were killed by the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP).

The insurgents said the aid workers were killed following the breakdown of talks with the federal government.

Editor’s note: This story was updated over an error of fact.