PM vows to punish killers of Haines

London: British Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to hunt down and punish the killers of David Haines, a British aid volunteer held captive by Islamist militants in Syria.
Haines is the third Westerner beheaded in recent weeks by the Islamic State group, which has seized vast swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq. "This is a despicable and appalling murder of an innocent aid worker. It is an act of pure evil," Cameron said, adding that "my heart goes out to the family of David Haines who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude throughout this ordeal."
"We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes," Cameron said.
The prime minister turned down demands from MPs to recall parliament insisting that there would be no kneejerk response to the murder of Haines. Islamist militants released a video on Saturday night showing Haines’s killing, apparently by another Briton, and issuing a death threat against a second British captive, Alan Henning. A grim-faced Cameron called the group the “embodiment of evil” but promised a “calm, deliberate” response.
In statement Cameron said, David Haines was an aid worker. He went into harm’s way not to harm people, but to help his fellow human beings in the hour of their direst need – from the Balkans to the Middle East.
His family spoke of the joy he felt when he learned he had got this job in Syria. His selflessness, his decency, his burning desire to help others has today cost him his life.
But the whole country, like his grieving family, can be incredibly proud of what he did and what he stood for in his humanitarian mission.
David Haines was a British hero. The fact that an aid worker was taken, held and brutally murdered at the hands of ISIL sums up what this organisation stands for.
They are killing and slaughtering thousands of people, Muslims, Christians, minorities across Iraq and Syria. They boast of their brutality. They claim to do this in the name of Islam. That is nonsense. Islam is a religion of peace. They are not Muslims. They are monsters. They make no secret of their desire to do as much harm not just in the Middle East, but to any countries or peoples who seek to stand in their way or dare to stand for values they disagree with.
Meanwhile, there is momentum behind the formation of an international coalition to destroy ISIL. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, has said that 40 countries have agreed to contribute. Tony Abbott, the prime minister of Australia, said that the country was preparing to contribute 600 troops and up to ten military aircraft to the campaign. France has also offered to take part in airstrikes in Iraq.
Britain has not ruled out airstrikes but is refusing to spell out its plans, including whether it is prepared to carrying out bombing raids in Syria as well as Iraq.
The prime minister’s own MPs urged him to speed up decision. The former defence secretary Liam Fox called for strikes on ISIL to begin “before it’s too late.” He said: “It’s very clear that it needs to be dealt with, and that our allies in the region lack the sufficient military capability to overcome them, so either we give them those elements of capability they require or this continues.”
He added that there was no need to seek explicit permission from the UN security council over the bombings. The former foreign office minister Alistair Burt called on Cameron to spell out his plans to parliament. “I think certainly the prime minister should be in a position to say to colleagues what his thinking is following the killing of the hostage, where Kerry’s efforts have got to in terms of pulling an alliance together, and he will want to listen to MPs about that.”