Second beheading raises stakes for US

Obama vows to build a coalition to 'degrade and destroy' Islamic State militants

Islamic State extremists have released a video showing the beheading of a second US journalist, Steven Sotloff, and warned US President Barack Obama that continuing airstrikes against the group in Iraq will be met with the killing of more Western captives.

Obama said on Wednesday that the United States will not be intimidated by Islamic State militants and will build a coalition to "degrade and destroy" the group.

Obama still did not give a timeline for deciding on a strategy to go after the extremist group's operations in Syria. "It'll take time to roll them back," the president said at a news conference during a visit to Europe.

The footage - depicting what the US called a sickening act of brutality - was posted late on Tuesday, two weeks after the release of video showing the killing of James Foley and just days after Sotloff's mother pleaded for his life.

Barak Barfi, a spokesman for the family, said the Sotloffs had seen the video and the US National Security Council said on Wednesday that the video was authentic. "The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time," Barfi said.

Sotloff, a 31-year-old Miami-area native 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 last month that showed Foley's beheading. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened with death in that video unless the US stopped airstrikes on the Islamic State.

In the video distributed Tuesday and titled A Second Message to America, Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is apparently beheaded by a fighter with the Islamic State, the extremist group that has conquered wide swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq and declared itself a caliphate.

'Barbaric' killing

Britain and France called the killing "barbaric". British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement that he would chair an emergency response meeting with his Cabinet on Wednesday to review the latest developments.

The fighter who apparently beheads Sotloff in the video calls it retribution for continued US airstrikes against the group.

"I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy toward the Islamic State ... despite our serious warnings," the fighter says. "So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."

The killer specifically mentions the recent US airstrikes around Mosul Dam and the beleaguered Iraqi town of Amirli, making it unlikely that Sotloff was killed at the same time as Foley, as some analysts had speculated.

As the Islamic State group has moved to expand its proto-state over the past year, it has frequently published graphic photos and gruesome videos of bombings, beheadings and mass killings.

Last week, Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff, pleaded with his captors for mercy, saying in a video that her son was "an innocent journalist" and "an honorable man" who "has always tried to help the weak".

How Sotloff made his way from Florida to Middle East hot spots is not clear. He published articles from Syria, Egypt and Libya in a variety of publications. Several focus on the plight of ordinary people in war-torn places.

In a statement, Foreign Policy magazine called him a "brave and talented journalist" whose reporting "showed a deep concern for the civilians caught in the middle of a brutal war".

At Sotloff's parents' home in Pinecrest, Florida, two police vehicles blocked the driveway on Tuesday, and officers advised journalists to stay away. Friends of the family could be seen coming and going.

"Everyone's been concerned. Everyone is grieving," neighbor Pepe Cazas said. "It's terrible. I've been praying for him."

Reuters-AP

(China Daily 09/04/2014 page11)