Steven Sotloff beheading video ‘is authentic’, says White House

The White House has determined that a video showing the brutal killing of freelance journalist Steven Sotloff is authentic. Islamic State extremists released the video showing Mr Sotloff’s beheading yesterday. It comes two weeks after the militants released a video showing the killing of James Foley, another American journalist. In the Sotloff video, a masked militant warns President Barack Obama that continuing air strikes against the group in Iraq will be met with the killing of more Western captives. Obama, speaking at a news conference in Estonia on Wednesday, vowed that “justice will be served”.

We will not be intimidated. This horrific act only unites us.

President Barack Obama, speaking in Estonia

Mr Sotloff is a 31-year-old Miami-area native who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines. He vanished in Syria in August 2013. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden announced the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of the video in a statement. In the video titled A Second Message To America,” Mr Sotloff appears in an orange jump suit before he is apparently beheaded by a fighter with the Islamic State, the extremist group that has conquered wide swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq and declared itself a caliphate. In the video, the organisation threatens to kill another hostage, who is identified as a British citizen.

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