Alan Henning, the latest Briton to be threatened by ISIS

The sparse information available on Alan Henning, the latest Briton to be threatened with beheading by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, indicates the man hails from the north of England and was an aid worker in Syria who was captured by the militant group earlier this year.

On Saturday, ISIS released a video purportedly showing the beheading of British aid worker David Haines. After the execution, a masked member of the militant group believed to be a British national dubbed “Jihadi John,” threatens to kill a second Briton who is identified as Alan Henning.

The masked man said Henning would be killed if British Prime Minister David Cameron continued military action against the group.

Dutch journalist Harald Doornbos, in an email to BuzzFeed News on Saturday, said a Syrian activist claimed he had met Henning in an ISIS jail. The activist talked to Doornbos on Jan. 16.

Doornbos, who writes for the magazine edition of the The Post Online, recounted the story:

The Syrian activist said that while in the jail, his captors one day brought in a man named Alan Henning. In the day and night the two spent in the cell, Henning appeared to be in good spirits. The Syrian said Henning said he was from Manchester and worked for a “Muslim NGO.” The Briton also told the activist he believed he would be freed because he was in the region doing aid work.

However, instead of releasing the British citizen, the activist told Doornbos ISIS took him to Raqqa, the capital of the group’s so-called “Islamic State.”

The Dutch journalist said after initially hearing the story, he looked Henning up online but found nothing. He never wrote about Henning as a result and out of potential safety concerns.

But after seeing the ISIS video, Doornbos said he went to check his notes and found Henning’s name.

The family of Haines, the Briton beheaded in the ISIS video, was asked for nearly 19 months to keep his capture a secret in a bid to increase the chances of securing his release, The Sunday Times reported.