’IS’ Claims Beheading of 2nd US Journalist, Threatens to Execute British Hostage

Local Editor

The so-called "Islamic State" [IS] released a video on Tuesday showing a masked militant beheading a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, according to the US "terrorism" monitoring group SITE.

The footage shows 31-year-old freelance reporter Steven Sotloff dressed in orange and on his knees in a desert landscape.

The masked militant condemned US attacks against IS positions and beheads Scotloff.

The video, shot with the same high production values as its predecessor, is entitled: "A second message to America."
It opens with a clip of US President Barack Obama vowing to be "relentless" in his determination to protect US citizens from IS attacks.

Sotloff identifies himself in English and calmly explains that he is paying the price for Obama's policy. His killer also speaks in English.

The militant then introduces a second captive, identified in a caption by name as a British citizen, David Cawthorne Haines. Officials with the British Foreign Office declined to immediately comment on Haines.

The militant who beheads Sotloff in the video called it retribution for Washington's continued airstrikes against the group in Iraq.

The militant says, "I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the IS" in apparent reference to a previous video in which US journalist James Foley was murdered.

The previous video was released last month after US President Barack Obama ordered air strikes against IS.

Meanwhile, the White House said that it had yet to authenticate the footage, which SITE said showed 31-year-old freelance writer Steven Sotloff on his knees beside an IS terrorist with a knife.

Sotloff, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in August 2013 and was not seen again until he appeared in a video released online last month [August] that showed Foley's beheading. His family only publicly revealed his captivity last month, having previously requested a media blackout.

The footage was posted two weeks after the release of the video showing the killing James Foley.

SITE first reported about the video's existence. Unlike Foley's beheading, which was widely shared on Twitter accounts affiliated with IS, the video purporting to show Sotloff's killing was not immediately posted online.

"I strongly condemn all such despicable crimes and I refuse to accept that whole communities can be threatened by atrocity crimes because of who they are or what they believe," Ban said.

The UN chief described the situation in Iraq, where IS extremists have seized territory in the north and west of Iraq, as "abhorrent" and called on religious leaders "to stand up for tolerance, mutual respect and non-violence."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team