(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Obamas comments came after he said the United States had verified the authenticity of a video released showing the beheading of freelance reporter Steven Sotloff.President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that the United States will not be intimidated by ISIS militants after the beheading of a second American journalist and will build a coalition to “degrade and destroy” the group. File photo dated June 02 2011 courtesy Etienne de Malglaive shows Steven Sotloff (centre with dark helmet) talking to Libyan rebels on Al Dafniya front line 25km west of Misrata. -AFP
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.
Obama’s comments came after he said the United States had verified the authenticity of a video released on Tuesday showing the beheading of freelance reporter Steven Sotloff two weeks after journalist James Foley was similarly killed.
Obama vowed the US would not forget the “terrible crime against these two fine young men.”
“Our reach is long and justice will be served” Obama said.
In the Sotloff video a masked militant warns Obama that as long as US airstrikes against the militant group continue “our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”
Obama responded that he will continue to fight the militant threat and the “barbaric and ultimately empty vision” it represents.
“Our objective is to make sure that ISIS is not an ongoing threat to the region” he said. “And we can accomplish that. It’s going to take some time and it’s going to take some effort.”
Sotloff a 31-year-old Miami-area native who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines vanished a year ago in Syria and was not seen again until he appeared in the video that showed Foley’s beheading. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the US stopped airstrikes on the ISIS.
In the video distributed on Tuesday and titled “A Second Message to America” Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is apparently beheaded by a fighter with the ISIS.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told the BBC on Wednesday that the masked British-accented militant appears to be the same person shown in the Foley footage.
In the video the organisation threatens to kill another hostage this one identified as a British citizen David Cawthorne Haines. It was not immediately clear who Haines was.
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 honourable man” who “has always tried to help the weak.”
Obama said the prayers of the American people are with the family of the “devoted and courageous journalist” who deeply loved the Islamic world and whose “life stood in stark contrast to those who murdered him so brutally.”
“Whatever these murderers think they will achieve by murdering innocents like Steven they have already failed” Obama said. “We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us.”
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that it is believed that “a few” Americans are still being held by the ISIS. Psaki would not give any specifics but one is a 26-year-old woman who was kidnapped while doing humanitarian aid work in Syria according to a family representative who asked that the hostage not be identified out of fear for her safety. For more news from Khaleej Times follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes and on Twitter at khaleejtimes Follow khaleejtimes ->
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