IS Claims Beheading of Journalist, Warns U.S. on Iraq Strikes

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

Jihadists released a video apparently showing the beheading of an American journalist kidnapped in Syria, in the most direct retaliation yet to U.S. air strikes against them in Iraq.

The video, in which the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group also threatens to kill another reporter if U.S. air strikes in Iraq continue, sparked global outrage on Wednesday.

Posted online late Tuesday, it shows a masked militant beheading a man resembling James Foley, who has been missing since he was seized in Syria in November 2012.

News of Foley's apparent beheading comes as U.S. air strikes appeared to yield some results, helping Kurdish and federal forces push IS fighters back from some recently-conquered areas in northern Iraq, including the strategic Mosul dam.

According to Kurdish officers, another U.S. air strike was carried out early Wednesday, targeting an apparent jihadist meeting at a school near the dam. Washington did not immediately confirm the raid.

"We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people," Foley's mother Diane said in a Facebook message to supporters.

"We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world."

The White House said U.S. intelligence was studying the video, and that President Barack Obama had been briefed on it as he flew from Washington to resume his vacation on Martha's Vineyard.

"If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

Foley was an experienced correspondent who had covered the war in Libya before heading to Syria to follow the revolt against Bashar Assad's regime, contributing to news site GlobalPost, Agence France-Presse (AFP) and other media outlets.

AFP chairman Emmanuel Hoog described Foley "as a brave, independent and impartial journalist" whose work in Syria and other war zones was "widely admired".

According to witnesses, Foley was seized in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on November 22, 2012.

In the nearly five-minute video, titled "A Message to America," IS declares that Foley was killed because Obama ordered air strikes against IS in northern Iraq.

The beheading is carried out in an open desert area with no immediate signs as to whether it is in Iraq or Syria by a black-clad masked militant who speaks English with a British accent.

Foley is seen kneeling on the ground, dressed in an orange outfit that resembles those worn by prisoners held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

"Any aggression towards the Islamic State is an aggression towards Muslims from all walks of life who have accepted the Islamic caliphate as their leadership," the masked militant declares.

He threatens to kill another man shown in the video and said to be Steven Sotloff, whose kidnapping in August 2013 has not been widely reported.

He has written for several U.S. newspapers and magazines, including Time, Foreign Policy and The Christian Science Monitor.

France on Wednesday slammed the apparent killing as "a barbaric act that plays on fear," while British premier David Cameron termed it "shocking and depraved" as he cut short a holiday.

Germany, denouncing the jihadists as "barbaric", said it would send arms to Iraqi Kurdish forces battling them.

The group, which led an offensive that has overrun large chunks of Iraq and neighboring Syria, has declared a cross-border caliphate -- a successor state to historic Muslim empires.

Earlier this month, Obama reacted by ordering U.S. warplanes to strike the jihadists, arguing they threatened U.S. personnel in the Kurdish regional capital Arbil and risked carrying out a genocide against religious minority groups.

Obama has insisted the scope of the strikes would remain limited but Iraqi officials and observers have argued only foreign intervention could turn the tide on jihadist expansion in Iraq.

Shiite militia, federal soldiers, Kurdish troops and Sunni Arab tribes have been battling IS for weeks in some areas but have been unable to clinch a decisive victory.

An offensive launched on Tuesday against Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit was presented as a major push to liberate the city, but it appeared to have stalled a few hours later.

Shellfire periodically hit the city on Wednesday while Iraqi security forces remained positioned outside it, police and witnesses said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say the strikes have already had an impact on IS morale but the intervention may also have galvanized some fighters as fighting Americans is a source of prestige in global jihad.

Comments 8
Thumb cedars2 20 August 2014, 09:06

Well the one thing the vast majority of Lebanese agree on is that they would all like a piece of these dark age murdering paedophiles.

Default-user-icon now (Guest) 20 August 2014, 12:46

They are only repeating acts first popularized by zarkawi, who came to iraq from iran, and other al qaeda terrorists sent to iraq by assad. Also kidnapping western journalists was HA favorite pastime in the 1980s but they released them for israli arms to iran.

Missing ArabDemocrat.com 20 August 2014, 14:16

Apparently, they are your friend as it was your regiome that saved them when the rebels were on the verge of finishing them off.

Default-user-icon now (Guest) 20 August 2014, 14:16

Thanks Izotz, someone has to step up and tell the truth and reality to the lost m8 souls they're not gonna get it from any m8 medias or their paid envoy flamethrower!!

Default-user-icon it worked Dr Fawaz it really did! (Guest) 20 August 2014, 14:38

ISIS works tirelessly to show the Syrian regime in the best light. A brilliant play when president Assad's father in law advised him to to hire ISIS as his publicists. Much better than Walid Mualem, Ibrahim Amine, Wiaam Wahhab, Michel Aoun and Hassan Nasrallah combined!

Thumb tom1 20 August 2014, 16:42

the stupidest group of terrorists on the face of the earth.

Thumb kanaandian 20 August 2014, 18:15

the whole (civilized) world is turning its eyes towards the enemy islamic state. will we (the civilized and civil world) also turn our eyes to the sponsors of the islamic state; mainly the terrorist republics of turkey and qatar as well to destroy islam's state nucleus?

Default-user-icon PEACE (Guest) 21 August 2014, 03:51

Using innocent people to benefit in war is ........... (I can't find a word to describe it). It is not a show of strength but cowardness.
We've seen it in Bali, Gaza, 9/11, with zarkawi, Christians in Iraq, Yzidi, with boko haram in Africa,