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Captive British journalist John Cantlie appears in new ISIS propaganda

This photo posted online by the Islamic State group-affiliated Amaq News Agency on Tuesday, July 12 2016 shows British journalist John Cantlie.
This photo posted online by the Islamic State group-affiliated Amaq News Agency on Tuesday, July 12 2016 shows British journalist John Cantlie. Amaq Agency/Screen grab

British journalist John Cantlie, who has been held hostage by the so-called Islamic State since 2012, has appeared in a new propaganda video for the terror group.

Cantlie was last seen in a video released in March and now looks noticeably thinner in the latest recording, released Tuesday by the ISIS-affiliated media outlet Amaq.

The video purports to show Cantlie, 45, criticizing the U.S.-led coalition for bombing Mosul University in the ISIS-held city in Iraq.

READ MORE: New Islamic State video released shows captured British journalist

“If you look behind me you’ll see it’s been pretty much smashed to pieces. You have to ask yourself: ‘’Why did the coalition decide to destroy the university?’” Cantlie says, dressed in a long grey button-down shirt and black pants.

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“The level of destruction is absolutely massive. Mosul University was the biggest and finest in all of Iraq.”

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“If it was a military point or a weapons cache or a training ground for the mujahedeen perhaps you could understand — but it was simply Mosul’s and Iraq’s finest university, now reduced to a huge pile of rubble.”

READ MORE: British hostage John Cantlie reappears in ISIS propaganda magazine

Global News cannot independently confirm whether the new video is authentic.

Cantlie was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012 along with U.S. journalist James Foley, who was beheaded on camera by ISIS militants in 2014.

Cantlie’s father, Paul, died in 2014, recorded a video from his hospital bed pleading for his son’s freedom.

Accounts from former ISIS hostages of other nationalities, whose releases came after hefty ransoms were paid, detailed how Cantlie, Foley and others were physically and psychologically tortured at the hands of ISIS.

Cantlie’s supporters, including his sister Jessica, have criticized the British government for failing to broker his release, according to the Guardian.

*With files from Nick Logan

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