A freed ISIS hostage has revealed how he shared a cell with all four men

A freed ISIS hostage has revealed how he shared a cell with all four men beheaded by the militants in sickening filmed murders.

French journalist Nicholas Henin was captured by jihadists in Syria last year and spent nine months in cramped cells alongside other Westerners - including James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines and Alan Henning.

Other cellmates included John Cantlie and Peter Kassig - both of whom the militants have since paraded and threatened with murder in chilling propaganda

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Cellmates: Nicholas Henin was captured by jihadists while working in Syria last year, spending nine months living in cramped conditions he described as 'brutal' and 'gruesome' alongside hostages who were later killed

Friends: Mr Henin said the prisoners he became closest to were murdered British aid workers David Haines (left) and Alan Henning (right). He described the latter as 'a total innocent' and 'kind of teddy bear'

Despite being released in April, Mr Henin said he still doesn't feel free of the horrors of his time in captivity - and the murders of his former cellmates brought back 'brutal' memories.

Mr Henin told ITV News he spent every minute of every day with his cellmates, sharing every aspect of their lives, and the men became close friends.

'There is no privacy when you are stuck together in a room for 24 hours a day, seven days a week,' he said.

'We were having meals together, sleeping next to each other. We were having discussions about everything: life, hopes, expectations'.

Henin said that the prisoners he became closest to over the nine months were murdered British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning.

'Alan Henning was someone who was a total innocent,' he said. 'He didn't go to make any money. Alan was a kind of teddy bear. Always willing to help the others. Giving his life.

'He decided one day to just give it, to dedicate to the others and these others were a bunch of Muslim friends who wanted, who started this action in Syria and he told us, "I was the only non-Muslim among these people but they were all my friends,"'.

Profiles: Victims who shared Henin's cell

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Tragic: James Foley had told journalism students his job was 'not worth your life'

JAMES FOLEY: Fearless journalist detained once before

When James Foley was abducted by militants in 2012, it was not the first time. The 40-year-old American freelance journalist had been held in a Libyan prison for six weeks just a year earlier.

He had been ambushed by Colonel Gaddafi's forces and no one in the West knew whether he was dead or alive for 18 days. 

Colleagues remembered Mr Foley as a fearless reporter, who was covering Syria's civil war for the respected Agence France-Press (AFP) news agency and U.S.-based GlobalPost.

A Catholic, he was the oldest of five children born to John and Diane Foley, who have hit out at the U.S. government over the case and claimed they were threatened with prosecution if they paid their son's ransom.

After his return from Libya he told the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he studied his craft: 'It's pure luck that you didn't get killed there. Pure luck.' 

Tragically, he added: 'It's not worth your life. It's not worth seeing your mother, your father, brother and sister bawling and you're worrying about your grandmother dying because you're in prison.' 

Mr Foley grew up in Rochester, New Hampshire, and worked as a teacher until his late 20s, when he switched to journalism. 

Andrew Meldrum, assistant Africa editor for The Associated Press, said after his death: 'He was determined to go to Syria, and he wanted to get the point of view of the Syrian people told.

'He could have continued to work in the safety of Boston. It wasn't like he even made a decision. He was dead set.' 

Mr Foley's capture in Syria remained a secret in order not to give the terrorists a very public bargaining chip. 

The video of Mr Foley's beheading at the hands of 'Jihadi John' emerged on August 19 this year, days after his family received a message saying he would be killed. 

STEVEN SOTLOFF: Reporter ventured into 'world of darkness'

Another freelance reporter, the 31-year-old was seized in northern Syria a year before his death after writing Middle East coverage for Time magazine, Foreign Policy and the Christian Science Monitor.

His parents in Pinecrest, Florida, who also had to keep his disappearance secret, described him as ‘a gentle soul’ who ‘tried to find good in a world of darkness’.

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Dangerous ground: It is thought Mr Sotloff, 31, managed to keep his religion secret from his ISIS captors

The U.S.-Israeli citizen was Jewish - his grandparents were Holocaust survivors - but it is believed he managed to keep his faith secret from his captors. 

He studied journalism at the University of Central Florida before developing a keen affection for the Middle East, travelling to Yemen to study Arabic.

But alongside interviews with Syrian refugees suffering from bronchitis, he also tweeted about his love of things closer to home - including the Miami Heat basketball team.

The video of his murder was released by ISIS on September 2, two weeks after he was publicly threatened at the end of the video showing Mr Foley's murder.

Barack Obama condemned the video as 'disgusting and despicable'.  

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Family man: David Haines with his wife Dragana

DAVID HAINES: Hard-bitten aid worker and devoted father

At 44, David Haines had more than a decade's experience working with some of the most deprived people in the world through humanitarian agencies.

Brought up in Perth, the father-of-two had been an RAF engineer before leaving to work for the train company Scotrail.

When he took up humanitarian work he travelled to South Sudan, the former Yugoslavia and Libya, and joined the French agency ACTED just two weeks before his abduction in March last year.

Mr Haines had been supplying food, water and tents with an Italian colleague to the Atmeh refugee camp, near Syria's border with Turkey. 

After his beheading video was released on September 13, the agency announced it would be pulling support from hostile regions.

Staff also refused to say whether any of its other workers had been captured.

His second wife Dragana, also 44, said she was left broken after his death and could not face telling their four-year-old daughter what had happened.

'He's everything to us, she said. 'He's our life. He's a fantastic man and father.' 

ALAN HENNING: Ordinary taxi driver who 'had to return' to Syria

The 47-year-old from Salford, Greater Manchester, caught western attention largely because he was not so different from millions of other Brits.

Alan Henning was not a journalist or a career humanitarian - he was simply a taxi driver who felt an irresistible urge to help.

The father-of-two was nicknamed Gadget and cracked jokes on his previous trip to a Syrian refugee camp.

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Not so different: Alan Henning was a taxi driver, not a professional aid worker, and he just wanted to help

When a BBC reporter asked him why he wanted to return, he said he had 'looked at the world differently' after seeing the children's plight. 

His friend Mohamed Elhaddad, a director of the UK Arabic Society, said: 'He was always very positive and very interested in the work.

'I have met his family and his children. The first time we went together he was very excited and very emotional. He does a lot for others.

'He is good at DIY and he was a useful person to have on the trips... But Alan went too far into Syria. He took that extra risk, because he could have accomplished the drop-off at the border.' 

He was captured in December last year and beheaded - again by the British militant dubbed Jihadi John - in a video released on October 3. 

Hundreds of people attended his memorial service in Manchester and raised more than £30,000 for a fund to help his widow Barbara and children Adam and Lucy.

He was described at the service, held symbolically at the British Muslim Heritage Centre, as not just a 'local hero' and 'national hero' but a 'world hero', too. 

... And the British killer who has declared war on the West

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Sickening: The executioner dubbed 'Jihadi John'

Confusion reigns over the identity of the brutal ISIS executioner known as 'Jihadi John'.

The masked killer with a London accent has appeared in all four execution videos and was long thought to be a former rapper from west London - a suggestion security sources are later thought to have dismissed.  

The U.S. now says it has established the killer's identity using voice recognition technology, but will not be releasing his identity to the public.

The executioner is understood to be known as 'John' because he travelled to join ISIS in Syria along with three other Britons.

The foursome were dubbed 'The Beatles' by their fellow militants.

European hostages freed earlier this year said the man guarded them and oversaw torture and mock executions. 

In the wake of James Foley's murder, Britain's ambassador to the U.S. Sir Peter Westmacott said the UK was 'very close' to identifying the killer - but weeks went by afterwards without any development emerging publicly. 

During the sickening clips, the executioner accuses the British and U.S. governments of being accountable for their own citizens' murders.

Directly addressing David Cameron in the video showing former RAF engineer David Haines' murder, he said: 'This British man has to the pay the price for your promise, Cameron, to arm the Peshmerga against the Islamic State.

'Ironically he has spent a decade of his life serving under the same Royal Air Force that is responsible for delivering those arms.

'Your evil alliance with America which continues to strike the Muslims of Iraq and most recently bombed the Haditha Dam will only accelerate your destruction, and playing the role of the obedient lapdog, Cameron, will only drag you and your people into another bloody and unwinnable war.' 

DOES ISIS HAVE AN AIRFORCE? TERRORIST 'FIGHTER PILOTS' ARE BEING TRAINED ON CAPTURED MIGS BY EX-OFFICERS FOR SADDAM HUSSEIN

Islamic State leaders in Syria and Iraq are training their fighters to fly captured fighter jets in the hope of establishing an air force, it has been claimed.

The terror group are understood to have been carrying out test flights the captured al-Jarrah military airport east of Aleppo, according to a British-based organisation monitoring the Syrian Civil War.

Having captured three fighter jets from the Syrian military, ISIS are using Iraqi pilots who were once officers in Saddam Hussein's air force to train Syria-based militants to operate the warplanes.

The news comes as Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula sought to mend its strained relations with ISIS, urging all jihadist groups operating in the Middle East to unite under the common cause of fighting against Western 'crusader' armies.

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Fighter: It is not clear if ISIS' jets are equipped with weaponry nor if the pilots are able to fly long distances, but witnesses said the planes appear to have been seized from the Syrian Air Force (pictured)

ISIS' alleged test flights over the Aleppo countryside are understood to be the first time the terror group - which seized control of vast swathes of Syria and Iraq earlier this year - has taken to the air.

'They have trainers, Iraqi officers who were pilots before for Saddam Hussein,' said Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

'People saw the flights, they went up many times from the airport and they are flying in the skies outside the airport and coming back,' he said, citing witnesses near al-Jarrah military airport.

The airport, which was seized from the Syrian regime earlier this year, is approximately 45 miles from the Turkish border.

It is not clear if the jets are equipped with weaponry nor if the pilots are able to fly long distances, but witnesses said the planes appear to be Soviet-built MiG 21 or MiG 23 models.

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Leader: News of ISIS' test flights comes as Al Qaeda - which has previously condemned ISIS for being too brutal - ostensibly sought to repair ties with the group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (pictured)