BAGHDAD (AFP) President Barack Obama vowed
Wednesday that the United States would not be
intimidated by the beheading of a second
American reporter but acknowledged the fight
against the jihadists would take time.
Obama pledged that justice would be done to the
Islamic State (IS) killers of 31-year-old reporter
Steven Sotloff, wherever they hid and however long
it took.
But he warned that eliminating the threat posed to
the region by the group from its bases in Iraq and
Syria would take time.
IS posted video footage on the Internet of Sotloff’s
beheading, confirmed as authentic by Washington,
which sparked outrage around the world.
It said the journalist’s killing, which comes on the
heels of the beheading last month of another US
reporter, James Foley, was in retaliation for
expanded US air strikes against its fighters in Iraq
during the past week.
It warned a British hostage would be next unless
London backs off from its support for
Washington’s air campaign.
But Prime Minister David Cameron said that Britain
too refused to be cowed, while Foreign Minister
Philip Hammond said that British air strikes were
not being ruled out.
Obama said the whole world had been repulsed by
the barbarism of Sotloff’s murder but “we will not
be intimidated”.
“Those who make the mistake of harming
Americans will learn that we will not forget and
that our reach is long and that justice will be
served,” he said.
Obama said Washington was determined to halt
the IS threat but warned it would depend on close
cooperation with partners in the region.
He has previously admitted that his administration
has yet to develop a comprehensive strategy for
tackling IS on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.
Washington has ruled out any air strikes for now
against IS fighters on the Syrian side, where they
hold a swathe of the east.
In violence on Wednesday, 10 children were among
16 people killed in an IS-controlled area of eastern
Syria, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a
regime air raid hit a bus, but state television
blamed the jihadists.
In northern Syria, several historic buildings,
including a colonial-era structure, have been blown
up in the city of Aleppo, reports said Wednesday.
State media said rebels in Aleppo destroyed
“several old buildings on Tuesday night by placing
explosives in a tunnel”. The Observatory said the
regime was behind the blasts.
- ‘Despicable act’ -
The British prime minister said the beheading
video depicted an “absolutely disgusting,
despicable act” and chaired a meeting of security
chiefs to discuss how to tackle the IS threat.
The masked executioner in the video spoke with a
London accent and claimed to be the same man,
confirmed by UK security services as a Briton, who
beheaded Foley.
“I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your
arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State,”
the black-clad jihadist says, wielding a combat
knife.
“So just as your missiles continue to strike the
necks of our people, our knife will continue to
strike the necks of your people,” he declares,
before reaching round to cut his captive’s throat.
At the end of the five-minute recording, the militant
threatens another captive, identified as Briton
David Cawthorne Haines.
“We take this opportunity to warn those
governments that enter this evil alliance of America
against the Islamic State to back off and leave our
people alone,” he says.
Britain has maintained a media silence about the
kidnapping of aid worker Cawthorne Haines and
there were few immediate details about when or
how he was abducted.
“We have to deal with (IS) on the basis of the wider
threat that they pose to the British public as well
as this individual,” the British foreign minister said.
“If we judge that air strikes could be beneficial,
could be the best way to do that, then we will
certainly consider them but we have made no
decision to do so at the moment.”
Britain has so far only carried out reconnaissance
flights in support of the US air campaign from its
base in Cyprus.
- ‘Brave and talented’ -
In a statement, the Sotloff family, who live in
Miami, said: “The family knows of this horrific
tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no
public comment from the family during this difficult
time.”
Israeli media reported that the family was Jewish
and that Sotloff himself held joint US-Israeli
nationality but IS made no mention of either in its
video.
Sotloff’s former employers at Time and Foreign
Policy paid tribute to a man widely respected for
his intrepid reporting in Syria and the wider region,
including a previous stint in Libya.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the world
was outraged at the beheading.
Hours after the posting of the video, the White
House announced that Obama had authorised
about 350 more US troops to beef up security at
US diplomatic facilities and protect personnel in
Baghdad.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/obama-vows-justice-done-islamic-state-us-will-intimidated/