The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has released a video Tuesday, Sept. 2, showing execution of a second American journalist Steven Sotloff, 30, two weeks after the first executed American James Foley.
According to New York Daily News, the video showed a masked man holding a knife on Sotloff’s neck. Sotloff condemned the President’s action of air strikes against ISIS and said he was “paying the price” now for the U.S. intervention.
“I’m back, Obama, because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings,” the executor said with a British accent. “Our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”
“We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone,” the masked man continued.
The video ended with the executor holding a captured British citizen identified as David Cawthorne Haines and threatening the ISIS militant group would execute Haines like how they did to Sotloff.
It was not known when and where the video was recorded. Some officials say they think Sotloff was executed on the same day as Foley, and ISIS did not release two videos at the same time only to receive stronger publicity and attention for each.
Other people believed the videos were made separately because Sotloff appeared to have a small beard and some hair on his head in the new video, which Sotloff was clean and shaven in the Foley’s video released on Aug. 19.
The White House said it could not immediate confirm the man in the video was truly Sotloff and whether the video was guenie.
“The United States has dedicated significant time and resources in an attempt to rescue Mr. Sotloff,” Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. “The video will be analyzed very carefully by the U.S. government and intelligence officials to determine its authenticity.”
Sotloff’s family released a statement via a spokesman and said to be aware of the video.
“The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately,” said Barak Barfi, the spokesman. “There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time.”
Sotloff was a freelance who worked at Time magazine, World Affairs, National Interest and the Christian Science Monitor. He was captured a year ago in Syria while reporting there.
Photo Credit: SITE Intelligence Group
