An Isis propaganda video has been released which purportedly shows recruits taking part in a training regime at a camp in northern Iraq. The footage appears to show the recruits as they are kicked in the chest and shot at as they crawl on the ground during the training routines. Elsewhere in the video, the men take part in martial arts routines and demonstrate how to take apart a machinegun. According to The Times, the video is called The Blood of Jihad and was filmed at a camp in northern Iraq. At one point the recruits are lined up as a man in a khaki t-shirt kicks each one in the chest. At another point in the footage, live rounds appear to be fired at the recruits as they rehearse how to retrieve injured fighters. The propaganda video was reportedly released by the militant group on Sunday. Isis expert Shiraz Maher told The Independent the video "purports to show Isis recruits in a training camp where they're receiving basic training and hand-to-hand combat." Mr Maher, a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College London, said: "At one point you can also see them rehearsing how to retrieve fallen comrades while live fire is being used in the training exercise." Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond today said allied air strikes had halted the advance of Isis in Iraq and degraded their military capabilities. Mr Hammond was speaking following talks in Baghdad with Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi, who took office last month at the head of a new administration intended to be more inclusive of the country's ethnic and religious groups. In a show of support for Mr Abadi's government, Mr Hammond said the UK was determined to "play its part" in helping Iraqis combat the Isis fighters. The Foreign Secretary told reporters: "We've always understood that the air campaign alone was not going to be decisive in turning the tide against Isil. "But it has halted the Isil advance, it has forced Isil to change its tactics and it is degrading their military capabilities." Confirming the UK Government's position that there will be no British "boots on the ground" in Iraq, Mr Hammond added: "The heavy work on the ground is going to have to be done by Iraqi forces." His visit came amid fears that the key Sunni province of Anbar in western Iraq could be about to fall to Isis. The province's police chief was killed on Sunday when his convoy was hit by a roadside bomb close to the capital, Ramadi. Following last month's emergency Commons vote, RAF Tornado GR4 fighter bombers have been attacking Isis targets in Iraq in support of the US-led coalition being assembled to counter the jihadi threat. Source: The Independent
