The Islamic State is now claiming to have killed another American Journalist Steven Sotloff. In a video put up by the ISIS, Steven Sotloff is seen kneeling down in an orange outfit and a masked men standing right adjacent to him, holding a knife in his hand.
Journalist Steven Sotloff is seen and heard saying, “Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for the preservation of American lives and interests. So why is that I am to pay the price of the interference with my life. Am I not an American citizen?”
Steven Sotloff, 31, was an American Freelancer Journalist associated with several organizations, including the Time magazine. Abducted from near Aleppo, Sotloff went missing since August last year when he had been to Syria for covering the boiling issues there.
Reportedly, the executioner is Jihadist John, the same person who had beheaded another American Photo journalist James Folley a week ago. Dressed in the same black outfit, he scoffs by saying, “I am back Obama.”
After having beheaded Mr.Sotloff, a British National David Cawthorne Haines appeared in the video with the same executioner.
The ISIS has warned all the governments who have entered in, what they (ISIS) call “an evil alliance of America against IS”. It has warned to back-off and leave their people alone.
American Intelligence Agencies are not working to confirm the authenticity of the video. American Journalist James Folley was the first target after which a Kurdish soldier was recently beheaded.
As ISIS had captured major and crucial localities of Iraq, America stepped in to assist the Iraqi government in combatting the ISIS militants. The U.S airstrike on ISIS locations in Iraq had begun by 9th of August. ISIS is keeping upset with the U.S intervention in the Iraq Crisis.
On August 31st, Kurdish Peshmerga Forces and the U.S military were able to free Amirli town in Northern Iraq. The ISIS had held residents of this town as hostages, cutting the supply of necessities and making their lives all the more difficult. But on Sunday, the forces were able to free the town from the control of ISIS.
In the video showing James Folley’s beheading, Mr. Sotloff had appeared in the end. There were threats that Obama’s next move would decide his fate following which a supporter of his had come out with a petition urging President Obama to save Mr. Sotloff’s life. Mr. Sotloff’s mother too released a video asking Abu Bakal al-Baghdadi to release her son.
Janine Di Giovanni, the Middle East editor of Newsweek, told CNN, “he was concerned that he had been on some kind of a list, and this had been around the time that ISIS had been showing up and taking over checkpoints that had been manned before by the rebels. And he thought he had angered some of the rebels, he did not know which ones, by taking footage of a hospital in Aleppo that had been bombed, and he had been very concerned about this.”
In a piece, written in praise of Mr. Sotloff on Time Magazine, columnist Joe Klein says, “I’ve known many stringers like Steve Sotloff and admired almost all of them. They turn up in war zones or other difficult places, looking for adventure and hoping to make a splash…or just tell a compelling story.”
Tags: Barack Obama Iraq ISIS Journalist Scotloff Steven Sotloff USA
