Washington: Below is a list of previous executions of Westerners by Islamist militant organisations since 2002, after Daesh militants on Friday claimed responsibility for the murder of British aid worker Alan Henning.
In a video, almost identical to those released after three previous murders, a masked Daesh militant also threatens a hostage he identifies as an American, Peter Kassig.
Americans
January 23, 2002 - Pakistan: Reporter Daniel Pearl, working for The Wall Street Journal and researching a story about Islamist militants, is kidnapped in the southern city of Karachi and beheaded.
A graphic video showing his decapitation is delivered to the US consulate a month later.
May 11, 2004 -Iraq: A video on an internet site linked to Al Qaida shows the beheading of businessman Nicholas Berg, who was abducted in early April in Baghdad.
According to US security forces, the masked executioner is Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the head of Al Qaida in Iraq who was later killed.
June 18, 2004 - Saudi Arabia: An Islamist internet site disseminates photos of the beheading of American aeronautical engineer Paul Marshall Johnson, who had been abducted several days earlier in Riyadh.
September 20, 2004 -Iraq: A particularly hardline group, led by Al Zarqawi, announces the decapitation of Eugene Armstrong, an American kidnapped on September 16 in Baghdad, with one of his compatriots Jack Hensley and Briton Kenneth Bigley.
August 19, 2014 -Iraq/Syria: Daesh posts a video of the decapitation of US journalist James Foley, 40, who was seized in northern Syria in November 2012.
September 2, 2014 - Iraq/Syria: Daesh goes on to behead journalist Steven Sotloff, again releasing a propaganda video showing the ghastly killing.
Britons
June 3, 2009 The Sahel: The North African branch of Al Qaida, AQIM, claims its first execution of a western hostage, Edwin Dyer, kidnapped on January 22 in the border area between Mali and Niger.
September 13, 2014 - Iraq/Syria: Daesh claims to have beheaded aid worker David Haines, as the US launches a vast diplomatic offensive to build an international coalition against the militants.
October 3, 2014 - Iraq/Syria: Daesh claims responsibility for the murder of British aid worker Alan Henning.
French
April 19, 2010 -Mali: Michel Germaneau, a retired French engineer, 78, is abducted in northern Niger and taken to Mali by AQIM, which announces his execution on July 25 after a failed Franco-Mauritanian raid to liberate him.
November 24, 2011- Mali: Philippe Verdon is kidnapped from his hotel in Hombori in northeastern Mali. On March 20, 2013, AQIM announces that it has killed Verdon, in response to France’s intervention in the country.
January 17, 2013 - Somalia: Somalia’s Al Shabab Islamists, linked to Al Qaida, say they have executed a French agent, Denis Allex, they had held since 2009, in retaliation for a failed rescue attempt.
November 6, 2013 - Mali: AQIM claims responsibility for the November 2 murders of two French journalists shot dead in Mali’s desert town of Kidal — Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon.
September 24, 2014 - Algeria: Daesh-linked Jund Al Khalifa, or “Soldiers of the Caliphate,” claim to have beheaded Herve Gourdel, abducted four days earlier in Algeria, in a video posted online after Paris rejected their demand to halt air strikes in Iraq.
