ISIS getting bolder in operations, propaganda, local expert says

A video released Sunday showing an apparent beheading of 21 Coptic Christians at the hands of ISIS militants shows ISIS is getting bolder, according to one local expert.

The 5-minute video shows the prisoners on their knees and Jihadists in black standing behind them.

“I think what ISIS is trying to do in this video is, they’re trying to make a propaganda point and they’re trying to show, ‘Look, we can kidnap all these people, we can behead them, we can have a mass execution, which is what it really is,'” said Craig Smith, the lead investigator of BrightStar Investigations, who has been tracking ISIS public intelligent forces.

ISIS is getting more grandiose and bold in its operations, he said. And there is concern over ISIS’s reach. Smith said the group has sent 750 fighters from the Middle East to European countries.

“This has catastrophic implications because if these fighters are going to come back to European nations, there’s a chance that US citizens that went over to fight in the Middle East are also going to come back to the United States and partake in terroristic operations here as well,” Smith said.

But he said US intelligence works around the clock to keep Americans safe.