Justice will be served, Obama warns Isil
UAE SUPPORTS ALL REGIONAL, GLOBAL EFFORTS AGAINST TERROR
US President Barack Obama yesterday said that Americans will not be intimidated by the “horrific” violence of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( Isil) militants after the beheading of a second US journalist. The cold- blooded murder would only stiffen the country’s resolve against the militants, he added.
Obama vowed that “justice will be served” after the US verified the authenticity of a video of freelance reporter Steven Sotloff’s killing.
The video comes just two weeks after another video showing the beheading of another US reporter, James Foley.
Speaking in Tallinn, Estonia, Obama said: “They make the absurd claim that they kill in the name of religion, but it was Steven, his friends say, who deeply loved the Islamic world,” he said. “His killers try to claim that they defend the oppressed, but it was Steven who travelled across the Middle East, risking his life to tell the story of Muslim men and women demanding justice and dignity.”
While he hasn’t given a timeline for deciding on a strategy to go after the extremist group’s operations in Syria, he said: “It’s going to take time for us to be able to roll them back.”
In London, British Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday that Isil will “be squeezed out of existence”, and promised to build a coalition in the region against the militants that cannot be mistaken for a western- led intervention.
On the eve of the Nato summit in Wales, the UAE said it supports all regional and international efforts against terrorism and is determined to stand firm against all extremist threats.
In a statement the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the UAE in particular “condemns the atrocities of the so- called Isil, which aims to kill, terrorise, and displace civilians, ransack property, and demolish historic and religious sites”.
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ( Isil) extremists have released a video showing the beheading of a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and warned President Barack Obama that continuing airstrikes against the group in Iraq will be met with the killing of more Western captives.
The footage — depicting what the US called a sickening act of brutality — was posted late on Tuesday, twoweeks after the release of a video showing the killing of journalist James Foley and just days after Sotloff’s mother pleaded for his life.
Barak Barfi, a spokesperson for the family, said the Sotloffs had seen the video but that authorities have not established its authenticity. “The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately. There will be no public comment from the family during this difficult time,” Barfi said.
Sotloff, a 31- year- old Miamiarea native who freelanced for
Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in August 2013 andwas not seen again until he appeared in a video released last month that showed Foley’s beheading. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the US stopped airstrikes on Isil.
In the video, the militant group threatens to kill another hostage identified as a British citizen.
Britain and France called Sotloff’s killing “barbaric.”
The UK government will examine “every possible option” to protect the British hostage threatened with death by the Isil, foreign secretary Philip Hammond said. His comments came as he confirmed that an unsuccessful attempt was made to rescue the British hostage and others held by Isil.
Calculations
British government sources said Prime Minister David Cameron had known of the threat to the man’s life for many months and so it would not change his short- term calculations, but the revelation of the threat to the public in the gruesome Isil video is likely to put more pressure on the UK to join the air strikes that the Americans have been conducting for weeks against Isil in northern Iraq.
It is thought the reference to the rescue bid referred to an unsuccessful operation by American commandos in July, when they raided an oil refinery near the Syrian cityof Raqqa, but did not find the hostages they had believed were being held there.
Hammond refused to rule out air strikes: “It doesn’tmake any difference at all to our strategic planning. If we judge that air strikes could be beneficial, then we will certainly consider them. But we have made no decision to do so at the moment.”
Cameron has already told MPs he regards Isil as a threat to the British way of life, and has not ruled out RAF involvement in air strikes.
Cameron is certain to confer with the US president Barack Obama at the Nato summit in Wales today about the threat to further hostages and the wider strategy to combat Isil.
Obama is under intense domestic pressure to be more decisive and is considering whether to extend the air strikes to Syria, the original base of Isil.
Cameron, at the G8 and G20, has led the calls on governments not to pay ransoms to hostages, and he is unlikely to change that policy in this case.
The fighter who beheads Sotloff in the video calls it retribution for continued US airstrikes against the group.
Proto- state
As the Isil has moved to expand its proto- state over the past year, it has frequently published graphic photos and gruesome videos of bombings, beheadings and mass killings.
In a statement, Foreign Policy magazine called Sotloff a “brave and talented journalist” whose reporting “showed a deep concern for the civilians caught in themiddle of a brutal war.”
Time Editor Nancy Gibbs said Sotloff “gave his life so readers would have access to information from some of the most dangerous places in theworld.”
Thousands of angry mourners yesterday buried a Lebanese soldier beheaded by Isil after an emotional funeral march, accusing the government of neglect for failing to negotiate his release.
The furore over the gruesome death of Sgt. Ali Syed, 29, came as the government races to secure the release of around two dozen more members of the country’s security forces who remain captives of Syria- based militants, including the extremist Isil group.
“He was betrayed by all the politicians, all of them! By parliamentarians and officials, and by the country. He was sold for a cheap price!” Syed’s uncle, Ahmad Syed, shouted during the funeral, in a tearful speech carried on Lebanese television.
Oupouring of sentiment
As he spoke, mourners packing the main street of his impoverished northern Lebanese hometownofFnaydekfiredguns in the air. They jostled to help to carry the coffin, wrapped in a Lebanese flag. Mourners rocked the coffin side- by- side, a Lebanese tradition that acknowledges the youth of the dead person, as they marched below a large banner of Syed.
Syed, a Sunni, went missing as militants from Syria overran the border townof Arsal for several days in August, kidnapping and killing soldiers and police. The incursion was the most serious spillover of the Syrian civil war into Lebanon. The insurgents involved in the operation included the Isil group and Al Qaida’s Syrian affiliate, the Al Nusra Front, both of whom are holding captives.
Syed surfaced in a video later announcing his defection from the army and his loyalty to the Isil group, but he may have spoken under duress. Later, another video surfaced of Syed being decapitated by Isil militants, according to photos posted on social networks on August 28.
Families have demonstrated throughout Lebanon demanding the captured soldiers’ release, blocking roads and setting up protest tents. There are an estimated 14 policemen and 12 soldiers still in militant custody, according to a count by rights group Human Rights Watch. At least ten of the soldiers are being heldbythe Isil group, saidaSunni cleric previously involved in negotiations to release the men.
The capture of its soldiers threatens to erode the Lebanese military’s morale, analysts say.
“Subjugating the soldiers to a terrifying destinywithout the military institution being able to protect its own, or to negotiate a safe passage for their release, undermines the credibility of the institution, and undermines the general morale of its soldiers,” Lebanese political scientist Imad Salamey said.