'Islamic State' extremists murder second US reporter
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WASHINGTON - "Islamic State" jihadists have murdered a second American reporter, releasing another video Tuesday showing a masked militant with a British accent cutting the throat of a US captive.
In the latest footage, the 31-year-old reporter Steven Sotloff calmly addresses the camera to say he is a victim of President Barack Obama's decision to press on with air strikes in Iraq against the jihadists.
Obama later Tuesday authorized about 350 more American troops to beef up security at US diplomatic facilities and protect personnel in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
At the end of the five-minute video recording, discovered online by the SITE terrorism monitoring group and seen by AFP, the militant threatens another captive, identified as British citizen David Cawthorne Haines.
"I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State," the black-clad jihadist says, wielding a combat knife and speaking in a London accent.
This was a reference to a video issued last month in which US journalist James Foley was murdered, again by a suspected British foreign fighter, and in almost identical fashion.
The fighter condemned recent US air strikes on the area around the Mosul Dam in Iraq, dating the footage after the 40-year-old Foley's killing.
"So just as your missiles continue to strike the necks of our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people," he declared, before reaching round to cut his captive's throat.
Sotloff's hair and beard were longer than in previous IS footage, in which he was threatened with death in retaliation for US strikes against the Sunni extremist group, which has declared an Islamic "caliphate" in regions under its control in Iraq and Syria.
AFP
