ISIL militants murder second US reporter

The militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have murdered a second American reporter, releasing another video Sept. 2 showing a masked militant with a British accent cutting the throat of a US captive.

In the latest footage, the 31-year-old reporter Steven Sotloff calmly addresses the camera to say he is a victim of President Barack Obama’s decision to press on with air strikes against the jihadists.

At the end of the five-minute recording, discovered online by the SITE terrorism monitoring group and seen by AFP, the militant threatens another captive, identified on screen as a British citizen.
 
"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 and speaking in a London accent.

This was a reference to a video issued last month in which US journalist James Foley was murdered, again by a suspected British foreign fighter, and in almost identical fashion.

The fighter condemned recent US air strikes on the area around the Mosul Dam in Iraq, dating the footage after 40-year-old Foley’s killing. 

"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 declared, before reaching round to cut his captive’s throat.

Sotloff’s hair and beard were longer than in the previous footage, in which he was threatened with death in retaliation for US strikes against ISIL forces.

In a warning to Britain, the killer declared: "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." 

The Sotloff...