Islamic State militants posted a video on Tuesday that purported to show the beheading of US journalist James Foley in revenge for US air strikes against the insurgents in Iraq.
The video, titled A Message To America, also showed images of another US journalist, Steven Sotloff, whose life the Islamic State said depended on how the US acts in Iraq.
US President Barack Obama held back from making a public statement about the beheading until the video could be formally authenticated.
Photo: AFP
“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,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.
Other political leaders were swift to react.
British Prime Minister David Cameron interrupted his holiday to return to London to lead the hunt to identify the man shown killing Foley, who spoke on the video with a British accent.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was not surprised to hear the British accent and that large numbers of British nationals were fighting in Iraq and Syria.
“Our intelligence services will be looking very carefully on both sides of the Atlantic at this video to establish its authenticity, to try to identify the individual concerned and then we will work together to try to locate him,” Hammond told Sky news.
French President Francois Hollande called for an international conference to discuss how to tackle the Islamic State, previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari urged the world to back his country against Islamic State, which he described as a threat to the world.
Germany and Italy said they were ready to send arms to bolster the military capabilities of Iraqi Kurds fighting the Islamic State.
Foley, 40, was kidnapped by armed men on Nov. 22, 2012, in northern Syria while on his way to the Turkish border, according to GlobalPost, a Boston-based online publication where Foley had worked as a freelancer.
He had reported in the Middle East for five years and had been kidnapped and released in Libya.
Sotloff went missing in northern Syria in July last year.
On Facebook, Foley’s mother Diane Foley said: “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. 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.
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