ISIS Releases Video Allegedly Showing Beheading of U.S. Journalist Steven Sotloff

By Matt WilsteinSep 2nd, 2014, 1:12 pm
 


According to the SITE Intel Group, ISIS has executed a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff:

The killing comes just weeks after the extremist group in Iraq killed U.S. journalist James Wright Foley. At the end of the video in which Foley was shown being killed on camera, ISIS fighters showed Sotloff kneeling, wearing the same orange garb. “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision,” the man in the video said.

Last week, Shirley Sotloff, the mother of the 31-year-old journalist, released a video message to ISIS in which she begged for their mercy.

“I am sending this message to you, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi al-Quraishi al-Hussaini, the caliph of the Islamic State. I am Shirley Sotloff. My son Steven is in your hands,” she said in the video. “You, the caliph, can grant amnesty. I ask you please to release my child,” she continues. “I ask you to use your authority to spare his life.”

Sotloff, who worked for Time magazine, was kidnapped in Aleppo, Syria in 2013 and was being held hostage by ISIS until his death this week. The group is now threatening to kill another hostage, British journalist David Cawthorne Haines.

Watch the video that Sotloff’s mother released below, via The New York Times:

Update — Sep. 2, 2:20 p.m. ET: CNN aired a short excerpt from the latest video, in which a British-accented man spoke directly to President Barack Obama, telling him it was the latest missile strikes on ISIS in Iraq that led to the group’s decision to kill Sotloff. Watch video below, via CNN:

[Photo via screengrab]

— —

>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com

Filed Under: