Video footage: The film released by Islamic State is yet to
be verified
The Islamic State (IS) has released a video online
purporting to show the beheading of US journalist James Foley, who went missing
in Syria in 2012.
The video, entitled A Message To America, was posted on
YouTube in a warning to US President Barack Obama over air strikes against the
militants in Iraq.
Islamic State released the horrific footage last night of a
jihadist, who spoke with a southern English accent, apparently beheading the
American photojournalist.
The White House said if the video was genuine, the US would
be "appalled".
Foley, 40, has reported extensively across the Middle East,
working for the US publication Global Post and other media outlets including
the French news agency AFP.
In the video, titled A Message to America, a man who is
identified as James Foley is dressed in an orange jumpsuit, kneeling in
desert-like terrain beside an armed man dressed in black.
![Photo from video purporting to show the murder of James Foley](http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/77052000/jpg/_77052638_023560278-1.jpg)
The man thought to be James Foley speaks, giving a message
to his family and linking his imminent death to the US government's bombing
campaign of IS targets in Iraq.
Clearly speaking under duress, he says: "I call on my
friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers the US
government, For what will happen to me is only a result of their complacency
and criminality."
After his short statement, the masked militant, who speaks
with a British accent and identifies himself as an IS member, describes Mr
Foley as an American citizen and goes on to deliver a warning to the US
government: "You are no longer fighting an insurgency. We are an Islamic
Army and a state that has been accepted by a large number of Muslims worldwide."
He then says of US attacks on Islamic State militants:
"So any attempt by you Obama to deny the Muslims their rights of living in
safety under the Islamic caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your
people."
After he speaks, the militant appears to start cutting at
his captive's neck before the video fades to black.
His body is then seen on the ground.
Another captive, identified as American journalist Steven
Sotloff, is shown at the end, with the warning that his fate depends on
President Barack Obama's next move.
Mr Sotloff was abducted a year ago in northern Syria, close
to the border with Turkey.
In a statement, the Global Post asked for "prayers for
Jim and his family", adding that it was waiting for the video to be
verified.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said "if true, the
murder of James Foley is shocking and depraved."
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond acknowledged the militant
appeared to be British. The involvement of a significant number of UK nationals
in Syria in Iraq was "one of the reasons why this organisation represents
such a direct threat to the UK's national security", he told the BBC.
In a 2012 interview with the BBC, Foley described his
motivation for covering conflicts.
"I'm drawn to the drama of the conflict and trying to
expose untold stories," he said.
"There's extreme violence, but there's a will to find
who these people really are. And I think that's what's really inspiring about
it."
Foley was also briefly detained in Libya in 2011.
US officials confirmed that they had seen the video. One
said it appeared to be authentic while two others said the victim was Foley,
Associated Press reports.
President Barack Obama is expected to make a statement later
but the threat of retaliation against Americans is likely to complicate US
involvement in Iraq, reports the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher in Washington.
White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin
Hayden said: "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."
Mrs Foley, in her Facebook post, urged the militants to free
any other hostages.
The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that
20 journalists are missing in Syria, local as well as international, and
believes many are held by IS militants.
"Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control
over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world,"
she wrote.
The US launched air strikes almost a fortnight ago, in an
attempt to help Kurdish forces curb the advance of Islamic State militants in
northern Iraq and recapture the Mosul dam, the biggest in Iraq.
President Obama described IS militants on Monday as "a
threat to all Iraqis and to the entire region". He said the Iraqi people
needed to reject them and unite to begin to push them out of the lands they had
occupied.
IS has been accused of massacring hundreds of people in
areas under its control in Iraq and also in eastern Syria.
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