The Islamic State militant group released a video on Tuesday purporting to show the beheading of a second American hostage, journalist Steven Sotloff, raising the stakes in its confrontation with Washington over American airstrikes in Iraq, according to The Associated Press.
A masked figure seen in the video also issued a threat against a British hostage, a man the group named as David Haines, and warned governments to back off "this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State," the AP reported. A statement released by Sotloff's family through a spokesman indicated the family considered the video to be authentic.
Sotloff's mother, Shirley, appealed last Wednesday for her son's release in a videotaped message to Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, according to the AP.
"The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time," said the spokesman, Barak Barfi, according to the AP. Sotloff, a 31-year-old freelance journalist from Florida, was kidnapped in Syria in August 2013.
The purported executioner appeared to be the same British-accented man who appeared in an Aug. 19 video of the killing of American journalist James Foley, and it showed a similar desert setting, the AP reported. In both videos, the captives wore orange jumpsuits.
"I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings and in Amerli, Zumar and the Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings," the masked man said in the video, addressing U.S. President Barack Obama, according to the AP. "So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."
In Washington, the White House said it could not immediately confirm the authenticity of the Sotloff video, but several U.S. government sources said it appeared to be authentic, according to the AP. In the video, Sotloff describes himself as "paying the price" with his life for the U.S. intervention in Iraq.
The White House said late on Tuesday that Obama was sending Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco to the Middle East "in the near-term to build a stronger regional partnership" against the Islamic State militants, the AP reported.
U.S. officials also said Obama ordered 350 more U.S. military personnel to protect the large American embassy in Baghdad, bringing up to about 820 the number of U.S. forces working to bolster diplomatic security in Iraq, according to the AP.
