James Foley the American freelance who was ‘beheaded’ by the Islamic State group
Photo: Periodista Digital.
The United States government has condemned in the strongest possible terms the purported execution of one of it citizens, James Foley, which was seen in a video sent by his killer, the Islamic State. In a statement released shortly after the video was received, the White House National Security Council spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden said that if the video was confirmed by the intelligence community as genuine, the US government would be appalled by what she called the murder of an innocent American civilian.
James Foley is an experienced freelance correspondent who made waves when he covered the war in Libya before making his way to Syria where he was following closely the war in that country and in neighboring Iraq. According to several American government officials, the US military had, since August, attacked more than seventy Islamic State group targets, killing a host of militants. They added that the group had consequently threatened to kill Foley to avenge the death of their comrades and the crushing of their advancement on targets such as amount Sinjar, the Mosul Dam and the Kurdish capital of Irbil.
James Foley was apparently abducted in the Northern Syrian province of Idlib in November 2012 after his car was stopped by four militants. His family has not heard from him since then. In the video that was distributed online by the Islamic State group sources, the group accuses the US government of killing Foley and Foley himself, when he speaks before the ‘slaying’ agrees to this, saying that his family should not accept any meager compensation for his death from the very people that killed him.
In response to the news of her son’s death, Diane Foley, the mother of forty year old James, called on the jihadist group to spare the lives of the other hostages, in particular, Steven Sotloff, who is seen alive in the video and who the Islamist State group has threatened to also kill if the air strikes continue. She said that they, just like her son, did not have any influence on the foreign policy of America in Iraq, Syria or anywhere else in the world for that matter. She said that the family was very proud of the fact that their son had given his life to expose the suffering of the people of Iraq and Syria. Diane also called on the world to respect them and give them time to mourn their son, brother and loved one.
