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Video purports to show British photographer held by Islamic State

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The Islamic State militant group released video Thursday that appears to show a captive British journalist in images that mark a departure from the beheadings of hostages that have become the hallmark of the extremists’ propaganda efforts.

The video released on YouTube, titled “Lend Me Your Ears” and lasting three minutes and 22 seconds, opens with the journalist, identified as John Cantlie, looking directly at the camera while he calmly recounts his capture by militants in Syria in late 2012. He wears an orange jumpsuit like those worn by Western captives beheaded by the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

The video features Cantlie in an interview format at a table before a black background. It does not include any violent acts.

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Cantlie says he feels “abandoned” by his government, and that he has “nothing to lose” by participating in the video.

Cantlie is shown saying he “wants to take advantage of this opportunity to convey some facts that you can verify ... facts that if you contemplate might help preserve lives.” He then vows that that, “over the next few programs” he would show the truth as “Western media tries to drag the public back to the abyss of another war with the Islamic State.”

Cantlie proclaims that he will show the “motivation of the Islamic State and how the Western media, the very organization [he] used to work for, can twist and manipulate the truth to the public back home.”

He says: “There are two sides to every story. Think you’re getting the whole picture?”

Security analysts caution that such propaganda videos of captives are typically made under duress, even if the subjects deny any coercion on camera. There are no militants present in the latest video.

The video is the latest example of Islamic State’s often-sophisticated use of online media.

Cantlie, an experienced war correspondent and photographer, escaped an earlier kidnapping episode in 2012 by militants in Syria along with a Dutch colleague. But Cantlie later returned to Syria, according to British press accounts, and was captured a second time.

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Islamic State, an Al Qaeda breakaway faction, has overrun large swaths of northern Iraq in an advance that stunned the international community and precipitated what President Obama called a campaign to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the group.

In recent weeks, the militants have released a series of grisly videos showing the beheadings of two U.S. journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and of a British aid worker, David Haines. Islamic State has also threatened to behead a second captive British aid worker, Alan Henning.

In each of those videos, a hostage wearing an orange jumpsuit is shown kneeling before a knife-wielding masked figure with a British accent who identifies himself as an Islamic State fighter. After a brief speech by both the hostage and the militant, the hostage is beheaded.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @mcdneville

Special correspondent Bulos reported from Amman, Jordan, and Times staff writer McDonnell from Beirut. Times staff writer Christine Mai-Duc in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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