The News Minute | August 20, 2014 7:43am IST
ISIS militants have released a video claiming that they have beheaded 40 year old American independent photojournalist James Wright Foley. The video shows James Foley kneeling down , with a man behind him dressed in black. James Foley was reportedly kidnapped from Syria in November 2012 and has been missing since then.
The video of the gruesome execution was released by ISIS in retaliation to the recent US air strikes conducted in Northern Iraq. In the video before the execution, James Foley is seen reciting a message asking his friends and family to rise up against my "real killers".
The executioner then gives a warning to US president Barrack Obama by saying "this man" is an American citizen and "any aggression towards the Islamic State" will result in "bloodshed of your people".
Reports on the web indicate that the executioner has a British accent. The original video which was uploaded in Youtube was removed shortly after it was posted. The US authorities have still not commented on the authenticity of the video, but mentioned that they were "appalled" by what was posted.
Although the video is still doing the rounds on Youtube, we from The News Minute have decided not to embed the same. The video ends with the executioner holding another American Journalist identified as Steven Stoloff who he says will be "next" depending on President Obama's decision.
With US carrying out air strikes in Iraq, reports in the US suggest that ISIS is now seen as a greater threat to America than Al Qaeda was before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“Every day that goes by, ISIS ... becomes a direct threat to the United States of America. They are more powerful now than al Qaeda was on 9/11," Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday.