Isis: British hostage John Cantlie tours Aleppo in new Islamic State propaganda video

Islamic State (Isis) has released a new propaganda video featuring British hostage John Cantlie reporting from the western Syrian city of Aleppo.

The slick 12-minute clip starts with the photojournalist dressed in civilian clothing touring crops and grazing lands around the disputed north-western city and ends with a French jihadi calling for more lone wolf attacks across Europe.

Titled "From Inside Halab", the ancient name for the historic city, the footage is the ninth showing Cantlie posted online by the Islamist group media arm - the Al-Hayat media centre - since he was kidnapped in 2012.

He first appeared in a series of propaganda video lessons called "Lend Me Your Ears", where he was seen sitting at a desk wearing a prisoner-like orange jumpsuit while commenting current events from an Isis prospective.

The journalist was then seen in another two chapters of the "inside" series purportedly showing him walking through the streets of Kobani, northern Syria, and Mosul in Iraq.

At the start of the most recent recording, Cantlie says it is the "last film in this series", without elaborating further.

He then goes on to show parts of the historic city that have been "bombed flat by two years of war" and moments of life under Isis rule.

Isis propaganda

The clip juxtaposes images of destruction to footage of wheat reserves and some of Aleppo's markets and food parlours in what appear to be a propaganda effort to portray Isis as a functional state, whose ability to function has not been hampered by months of bombings.

Cantlie shows viewers children being taught the Quran and people queuing at a Sharia Court.

"One of the common accusations of the West is that under Islamic State education will suffer, religious studies and changes to the curriculum don't quite fit their image of progressive schooling," he says in the video.

"But here in Halab, these young men here are learning Quran recital and languages and with any luck they will form the mujahedeen for the next generation in this region."

He then shows what is described as the site of a fresh bombing, which he claimed was the result of a coordinated effort between a US military drone and war planes of Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Views of the jihadists

The video report also includes jihadists fishing on the Euphrates or drinking tea as well as two interviews with Islamist fighters.

The first, speaking in Arabic, vows defiance saying IS will not be stopped by the US-led bombardments that have helped the group losing ground to rival forces in recent weeks.

The second, who is said to be a French national and speaks in French, instead praises the Islamist shootings that left 17 people dead in Paris last month.

"These three attacks only made us happy," he says, before urging Muslims in Europe to carry out more of such deadly actions.

The video appears to have been filmed in mid-January, as the French jihadist refers to the 7 January Charlie Hebdo attack as if it happened a few days earlier.

Aleppo has been the scene of heavy fighting since the start of the Syrian Civil War. Different from what suggested in the video, it has never been under the complete control of IS.

In February, it was reported the group was pulling out of the areas it held in and around the city to reinforce positions further east where it is fighting Kurdish forces and other rebel groups.