The FBI on Tuesday asked for the public 's help in identifying an English-speaking militant who appeared to help execute Syrian soldiers in an ISIS recruitment video released last month . In the 55-minute video titled `` Flames of War , '' the jihadist switches from classical Arabic to perfect English with a North American accent , and appears to orchestrate a mass execution of Syrian soldiers . The FBI reached out to the public on its website Tuesday , posting a portion of the video and asking whether anyone has information about the jihadist 's identity . `` We 're hoping that someone might recognize this individual and provide us with key pieces of information , '' Michael Steinbach , assistant director of the FBI 's counterterrorism division , said Tuesday . The request is part of the FBI 's broader outreach to the public to help identify people seeking to travel overseas to fight with terror groups , and those who are returning from such fights . U.S. intelligence officials have been trying to analyze the recruitment featuring the English-speaking jihadist . Officials see the killer 's appearance in the video as significant because he comes across , they say , as articulate and persuasive , a person of influence within the terror group . In the video , there are a number of men digging a ditch behind him . The jihadist , whose face is covered except for his eyes , claims they are Syrian soldiers assigned to a 17th Division military base near the Syrian city of Raqqa , and who , after an ISIS attack , were `` digging their own graves in the very place where they were stationed . '' CNN can not independently verify that the men in the video were soldiers , as the propaganda video claims . The video then shows the speaker and a group of militants executing the men , who fall into the ditch . The man who led this atrocity on film could be an Arab who was educated in the West . Or he could be an American or Canadian . If so , CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said , he would be the first North American jihadist to commit a war crime on camera . `` Clearly ISIS had a calculated step to be able to put this guy on camera , '' said Frank Cilluffo , a security analyst at George Washington University . `` Why ? Because he seems American . The message is aimed at a Western audience . '' On Sunday , FBI Director James Comey told CBS ' `` 60 Minutes '' that his agency is tracking a dozen Americans that have joined terrorist groups inside Syria . `` These homegrown violent extremists are troubled souls who are seeking meaning in some misguided way , and so they come across the propaganda , and they become radicalized on their own , sort of independent study , and they 're also able to equip themselves with training , again , through the Internet , '' Comey told CBS . `` And then engage in jihad after emerging from their basement . '' Last month , federal authorities detailed their case against the owner of a New York food store who they accused of funding ISIS and plotting to gun down U.S. troops who had served in Iraq . A law enforcement official told CNN that former Boston resident and U.S. citizen Ahmad Abousamra could be a key player in the ISIS social media machine that 's become renowned in recent weeks for spewing brutal propaganda online -- messages meant both to terrify and recruit Westerners . And CNN obtained tapes of American terrorists recruiting friends in the United States to join terror groups like ISIS . ISIS has successfully recruited large numbers of foreign fighters from across the globe , including from the United States and Western Europe . A CIA source told CNN last month that more than 15,000 foreign fighters , including 2,000 Westerners , had gone to the civil war in Syria . It was not immediately clear how many had joined ISIS and how many were with other groups opposed to the Syrian government . The foreign fighters come from more than 80 countries , the CIA source said . A top State Department official insisted Monday that American efforts to combat ISIS ' powerful online message are working , successfully keeping disaffected youth from joining the extremist group . `` We have evidence that there are young people who are not joining because we have somehow interceded , '' Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel told CNN 's Elise Labott on Monday . `` They 're reading the messages , they 're hearing the messages -- not just from us but from the hundreds of Islamic clerics who have said that this is a perversion of Islam , from the hundreds of Islamic scholars who have said the same thing . '' `` It 's a very small cohort , '' Stengel said of these so-called `` foreign fighter '' cases originating from the United States .
FBI seeks public 's help in identifying English-speaking militant . Comment: The 55-minute video released by ISIS shows the jihadist leading a mass execution . In the video , jihadist speaks first in Arabic , then in English .