David Haines (9 May 1970 – 13 September 2014) was a British aid worker who was captured by the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

(ISIL) in early 2013 and beheaded in early September 2014.

Early life and career

Haines was born in

East Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to the south-west ...

, moving to

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, as a child and prior to his capture resided in

Sisak Sisak (; also known by other alternative names) is a city in central Croatia, spanning the confluence of the Kupa, Sava and Odra rivers, southeast of the Croatian capital Zagreb, and is usually considered to be where the Posavina (Sava basin ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

, as a father of two. Haines had been an aircraft engineer in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

before turning to work in

humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and Humanitarian Logistics, logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homelessness, homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Th ...

in 1999. He helped victims of conflict in the

former Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

, Africa and the Middle East. In 2012, he was an unarmed security worker for

Nonviolent Peaceforce Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) is an international nongovernmental organization that employs Unarmed Civilian Protection. Their mission is to protect civilians in violent conflicts through unarmed strategies, build peace side-by-side with local comm ...

, a civilian peacekeeping group in

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

Kidnapping

Haines was abducted in March 2013 by an unidentified armed gang affiliated with

ISIL The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signif ...

while working in a Syrian internally displaced persons (IDP) camp run by the aid group Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED). He was kidnapped near the Atmeh refugee camp near the Turkish border and the Syrian province of

Idlib Idlib (, ; also spelt Idleb or Edlib) is a city in northwestern Syria, and is the capital of the Idlib Governorate. It has an elevation of nearly above sea level, and is southwest of Aleppo. It is located near the border with Turkey. History ...

. He was seized along with an Italian aid worker named Federico Motka. Their Syrian translator and driver were not taken. The translator later said that insurgents shot out the

tyres A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over w ...

and surrounded their vehicle on a country road. Haines' family were ordered by

UK Foreign Office The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign an ...

not to speak to anybody about the abduction, an instruction that continued even after the abduction became public when Haines appeared in the purported Sotloff execution video that threatened Haines would be the next victim. The UK Foreign Office had also requested the British media to not publish Haines' identity, fearing for his safety. When international press published his name after release of the video, UK media decided to also publish it, with ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' stating that "no purpose is served by continuing to withhold his name".

Rescue attempt

After the surfacing of the

Steven Sotloff Steven Joel Sotloff (; May 11, 1983 – September 2, 2014) was an American-Israeli journalist. In August 2013, he was kidnapped in Aleppo, Syria, and held captive by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). On September 2, 20 ...

execution video, UK Foreign Secretary

Philip Hammond Philip Hammond, Baron Hammond of Runnymede (born 4 December 1955) is a British politician and life peer who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019 and Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016, having previously served as Defence ...

revealed that the aid worker was one of the intended targets of the American rescue mission. The mission failed reportedly because the jihadist group had moved the hostages prior to the arrival of American commandos. Few details about a second rescue attempt were revealed.

Appearance in Steven Sotloff video

The abduction of the aid worker came to worldwide attention after being shown at the end of the

execution video. The video was discovered on 2 September 2014 by

SITE Intelligence Group SITE Intelligence Group is an American for-profit consultancy group that tracks online activity of white supremacist and jihadist organizations. It is led by the Israeli analyst Rita Katz and based in Bethesda, Maryland. From 2002 to 2008, Katz h ...

, purportedly ahead of its intended release by Al-Furqan Media Productions. The individual was shown with

Jihadi John Mohammed Emwazi (born Muhammad Jassim Abdulkarim Olayan al-Dhafiri; ; 17 August 1988 – 12 November 2015) was a British militant of Kuwaiti origin seen in several videos produced by the Islamist extremist group Islamic State (IS) showin ...

and was declared to be the next possible victim of the militant group

Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

(ISIL/ISIS). At the end of the Steven Sotloff beheading video, Jihadi John is shown holding a named British humanitarian aid worker by his orange jumpsuit, saying "We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against ISIL to back off and leave our people alone."

British response

The day after the Steven Sotloff execution video surfaced, British prime minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

told the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

: "I am sure the whole House, and the whole country, will join with me in condemning the sickening and brutal murder of another American hostage, and share our shock and anger that it again appears to have been carried out by a British citizen. All our thoughts are with the British hostage and his family. Their ordeal is unimaginable." He concluded: "A country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers. If they think we will weaken in the face of their threats, they are wrong. It will have the opposite effect. We will be more forthright in the defence of the values, liberty under the rule of law, freedom, democracy that we hold dear."

Death

A video of the lead up and aftermath of Haines' beheading, entitled "A Message to the Allies of America", was released by ISIL on 13 September 2014. The video, following a similar format to the ones for Foley and Sotloff, started with a clip of a press statement by Prime Minister Cameron followed by a title screen. It then showed Haines delivering a prepared speech. Next, the executioner makes a statement, then puts his knife to Haines' throat and makes cutting motions as the video fades to black. In the final scene, the executioner is holding the orange jumpsuit of another person, named as British aid worker

Alan Henning Alan Henning (15 August 1967 – ) was an English taxicab driver-turned-volunteer humanitarian aid worker. He became the fourth Western hostage killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with his killing publicised in a beheadin ...

, saying "If you, Cameron, insist on fighting the Islamic State then you, like your master Obama, will have the blood of your people on your hands." On 22 October 2016, a memorial for David Haines was unveiled in a garden at

Perth railway station Perth railway station is the largest station on the Transperth network, serving the Perth central business district, central business district of Perth, Western Australia. It serves as an interchange between the Airport line, Perth, Airport, Ar ...

. It was dedicated by former colleagues at

Abellio ScotRail Abellio ScotRail, operating services under the name ScotRail, was the national train operating company of Scotland. A subsidiary of the Netherlands-based transport conglomerate Abellio (transport company), Abellio, it operated the ScotRail (br ...

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haines, David Cawthorne 1970 births 2010s missing person cases 2014 deaths 20th-century Royal Air Force personnel British aid workers British people murdered abroad British people taken hostage English terrorism victims Filmed executions Foreign hostages in Syria British people imprisoned in Syria Kidnapped British people Kidnappings by Islamists Missing person cases in Syria People beheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Terrorism deaths in Syria Royal Air Force airmen Beheading videos Filmed killings in Asia