David Cameron was today chairing an emergency meeting on hostages as the White House announced that America was reviewing its efforts to free citizens seized by terror groups.
Intelligence and security chiefs were updating the Prime Minister on the latest atrocity by Islamic State, in which fanatics including Briton “Jihadi John” beheaded at least 17 Syrian soldiers and US aid worker Peter Kassig.
American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff have also been murdered by the terrorist group and Washington said Barack Obama had ordered a review in the summer of how the US deals with hostage cases.
The British Government is also understood to be examining if it could improve its efforts to secure the release of captured UK nationals, although unlike America it has not launched a formal review.
The Foreign Office usually advises families of hostages that publicity could hamper their chances of being freed.
But the groundswell of support for British aid worker Alan Henning, from the Manchester area, after it emerged that he was being held by IS militants, has raised questions over whether family appeals may help rescue attempts.
A video of Mr Henning’s beheading was released by IS last month.
The meeting of Whitehall’s Cobra emergency committee was focusing today on the latest IS murders rather than on British hostage policy, with any re-examination of this being part of standard procedure, according to sources.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The UK has robust system in place for handling hostage situations that brings to bear expertise from across government. We do everything we can to bring home safely Britons who have been taken hostage overseas.”
“We have a clear policy, which we believe is right, not to pay ransoms. No one should interpret that as our not doing everything we can in every case to help families and hostage.”
In America, White House National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey said the goal “had always been to use every appropriate resource within the bounds of the law to assist families to bring their loved ones home”.
He added: “In light of the increasing number of US citizens taken hostage by terrorist groups overseas and the extraordinary nature of recent hostage cases, this summer President Obama directed relevant departments and agencies, including the Departments of Defense and State, the FBI, and the Intelligence Community, to conduct a comprehensive review of how the US government addresses these matters.”
ABC News reported that a Pentagon official wrote to US Representative Duncan Hunter that the review would include “examining family engagement, intelligence collection, and diplomatic engagement policies”.
