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Video Stirs Renewed Concern Over ISIS
ISIS militants released on Tuesday a video, titled "A Message To America," that purported to show the beheading of American journalist James Foley (Reuters)
in retaliation against recent U.S. airstrikes on the militant group in
Iraq. The video also showed Steven Sotloff, another U.S. journalist,
whose life militants said depended on future U.S. actions in Iraq (NYT).
While the White House said it was "appalled by the brutal murder," U.K.
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond raised concerns about the apparent British identity (AP) of the masked fighter in the video. Foley, a reporter for Global Post, had been kidnapped in northern Syria in 2012.
Analysis
"Their capture and Foley's apparent execution raise fresh questions
about how important conflicts across the globe are covered—and the
dangers freelance journalists, eager for bylines, face to report them,"
writes Terrence McCoy for the Washington Post.
"Suddenly, a common enemy has joined mutually distrustful players in the making of a coalition against ISIS—just the kind of multilateralism that the President favors. As this month's events bore out, such an effort requires American leadership," writes George Packer for the New Yorker.
"In Syria, IS militants and their predecessors have killed countless people
in recent years, and over 160,000 in total have died during the Syrian
civil war. Yet it is only now that the world is waking up, now that the
conflict has spilled into Iraq, where the Islamic State also appears to
be spreading its tentacles without much resistance," writes Der Spiegel.
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