Fresh details have emerged about last month's sickening filmed beheading of 22 Syrian soldiers by a group of international killers fighting for the Islamic State.

Operational details, such as the expense of the professionally produced and edited footage, how long the film took to shoot, and exactly where it was filmed were uncovered by British and American researchers who spent weeks extracting clues from the 16-minute long video clip.

The propaganda video, titled 'Though the Unbelievers Despise It', was known to have been filmed in the religiously symbolic town of Dabiq in North West Syria, and also showed the severed head of captive American aid worker Peter Kassig, who was apparently murdered off screen.

However, experts from TRAC (Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium) and UK-based counter-extremism think tank Quilliam believe they have now pinpointed they exact stretch of desert in which the savage murders took place.

They also raise a number of questions about why non-speaking militants are seen wearing microphones, why some militants are filmed at the start of the video but not later, and bring to light new evidence suggesting ISIS' killer-in-chief 'Jihadi John' may have been played by a body double.

How the video was shot

According to joint research carried out by TRAC and Quilliam and published by CNN, events leading to ISIS' horrific beheading of 22 Syrian soldiers were filmed over a four to six hour period.

Close analysis of shadows and the direction of sunlight suggests that scenes that appear to have been shot without pause were in fact broken up and filmed over a number of hours.

This is likely to have been in order to re-shoot scenes if, for example, one of the murderers made a mistake in the heavily choreographed sequences captured before the murders actually take place.

The experts believe the 16-minute long video would have cost ISIS approximately £200,000 to produce, such was the sophistication of the editing equipment required and the quality of the multiple HD cameras required to produce such a slick and professional piece of propaganda.

Despite the money spent, basic continuity errors have crept into the film - including militants and prisoners standing in a different order in apparently successive scenes.

The frame-by-frame analysis also revealed several moments where ISIS militants are seen in the background of the clip standing around and talking - apparently killing time before being called to take part in group filming.

(dailymail.com)

ANN.Az