A 5 minute video released on Tuesday shows ISIS militants beheading American journalist James Foley, who was kidnapped in Syria in November 2012. ISIS claims that the killing was a revenge against US air strikes targeted against the group in Iraq. The footage, titled “A Message to America” was posted on Youtube by the terrorist group after they vowed that they “will drown all of America in blood.”
The late Foley, a reporter for the Boston based newspaper GlobalPost, was kidnapped in Syria while covering the civil war. He was before that in Libya covering the uprising against EL Khaddafi regime. Before being killed, he was forced to read a letter accusing the US of being the cause for his death. He said: “I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the U.S. government. For what will happen to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality. My message to my beloved parents: Save me some dignity, and don’t accept some minor compensation for my death from the same people who effectively hit the last nail in my coffin with their recent aerial campaign in Iraq.”
After beheading Foley, the executioner, dressed head-to-toe in black, placed his head on his back before grabbing another captured American journalist and threatening to kill him if the US did not make the right decisions. He addressed Obama saying that the life of this American citizen depends on his next decision. This second reporter is Steven Soltoff of Miami, reporter for Time magazine.
Foley’s family confirmed his death on a webpage created to rally support for him. His mother, Diane Foley, said in a statement on the webpage that the late “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,” his mother said.
The White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden reacted to the sad event in a statement saying that “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.”
The Moroccan Times.
