Zee Media Bureau/Supriya Jha
London: As the Islamic State continues unleashing terror and barbarism in Iraq and Syria, there is growing outrage and horror at the emergence of a video that reportedly shows the beheading of a US journalist James Foley.
The Amnesty International has condemned the "chilling" video that shows the execution-style beheading of James Foley, calling it a war crime.
Said Boumedouha, Amnesty's acting Middle East and North Africa programme director, said, "This shocking video, if genuine, is devastating for the loved ones of James Foley and chilling for the family, friends and colleagues of those journalists who are still missing in Syria and northern Iraq, feared captured by IS militants”.
“It is a war crime and both those who carried out the killing and those who ordered it must face justice".
Amnesty warned against the implication of the video saying, the beheading heightened fears that other hostages too may same fate.
"The implication made in the video that journalists are being targeted in revenge for the US government’s involvement in Iraq is deeply alarming,” said Said Boumedouha.
Meanwhile, a report in GlobalPost says that the FBI believes the video is authentic. Also, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond today said that the video appeared to be genuine.
"All the hallmarks point to it being genuine," Hammond told the BBC Radio.
"If genuine, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American journalist and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo has announced that the social media site was "actively suspending" the accounts that published graphic imagery after the release of the beheading video.
In what highlights the wide reach of the IS that has managed to get Australians, Americans, and also UK citizens as the members of its jihadist group, the reports suggest that the masked executioner in the video has a British accent and may be a British.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also said that the executioner in the beheading video appeared to be British and the UK was in the process of veryfying his background.
"On the face of it, it appears to have been a British person. We'll have to do some more analysis to make quite certain that that is the case," Hammond told the BBC.
Speaking to the BBC Radio, Hammond expressed horror at the brutality of the extremists saying, his reaction was "Horror, absolute horror at what appears to be a brutal execution.... It just is one more example in a catalogue of brutality by this organisation".
Hammond underscored how the increasing number of Britons in Iraq would pose a "direct threat to our own national security" if they seek to return with "the tradecraft that they've learned working with these terrorist organisations".
Prime Minister David Cameron, who cut short his holiday trip to hold meetings on Iraq and Syria post the beheading video release said in a tweet that the murder of James Foley if confirmed, was “shockig and depraved”.
The jihadist group - Islamic State, that has established a Caliphate across the captured areas of Iraq and Syria, posted a video purportedly showing the execution of American journalist James Foley and threatened to kill another US journalist unless the United States gets out of Iraq.
The nearly five-minute video titled "A Message To America" showed a masked militant who speaks English with a British accent beheading a man resembling Foley. The freelance photo journalist been missing since he was captured by the militants in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on November 22, 2012.
In the grisly video, Foley is seen donning an orange outfit, kneeling on the ground.
The terrorists have issued a warning to America saying they will be drowned in blood in retaliation to President Barack Obama’s decision to order air strikes against IS (also known as ISIS) militants in Iraq two weeks ago.
First Published: Wednesday, August 20, 2014, 15:57
