Brother of beheaded British hostage calls for troops to fight militants

LONDON - Britain should put troops on the ground in the Middle East to fight Islamist militants who have taken control of large swathes of Iraq and Syria and killed Western hostages, the brother of a beheaded British aid worker has said.

Insurgents who are seeking to establish a caliphate in the region beheaded 47-year-old British aid worker Alan Henning last week, a killing condemned by Western leaders and British Muslim groups alike.

Britain ordered air strikes against targets in Iraq last month though Prime Minister David Cameron has not yet proposed strikes against Syria.

Cameron, who has had to grapple with the bitter legacy of the 2003 Iraq war, has so far ruled out ordering British soldiers to fight on the ground in either Iraq or Syria.

But Reg Henning told the BBC that the only way to end the killing of hostages was to deploy soldiers. "We need to send ground troops in or forces in to find out where these monsters are and bring them to justice," he said."The sooner we do it, the sooner the killing stops." "Go and find them, bring them to justice, bring them over here, let us try them," he was quoted as saying on the BBC website.

Islamic State is believed to be holding fewer than 10 Western hostages in Syria. The remaining hostages include British journalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in three Islamic State videos.