 He had previously been kidnapped in Syria alongside Dutch photographer Jeroen Oerlemans in July 2012 but was rescued a week later.In July 2017, reports surfaced in Iraqi media claiming Cantlie had been killed in an airstrike sometime during the battle of Mosul.In October 2017, a French ISIS fighter told French magazine "Paris Match" that he had seen Cantlie “seven or eight months ago” in Raqqa.