ISIL: STRAIGHT FROM HELL

ISIL militants claim to have executed captured American reporter

Militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) released a propaganda video on Tuesday showing the execution of a man purported to be American photojournalist James Wright Foley, who went missing in Syria in 2012.

The video showed a kneeling man in an orange jumpsuit being beheaded by a masked man speaking English with a British accent. According to the executioner, the killing was retaliation for recent American bombing campaigns against ISIL militants which targeted 90 ISIL-controlled locations in Iraq.

Though the identity of the executed man remains unknown, British foreign secretary Philip Hammond stated there was a strong possibility the man was Foley. U.S. Intelligence officials are currently working to verify the identity of the executed man.

This is the second time ISIL has threatened the lives of American journalists in Iraq. On Monday, and ISIL spokesperson threatened to execute another captured American journalist named Steven Sotloff if bombings continued.

Foley, an independent war correspondent and former Stars and Stripes reporter, was thought to have been captured by supporters of Syrian Prime Minister Bashir Al-Assad in November 2012. Before that, he was detained in Libya by former dictator Muammar Gadaffi’s security forces, but later released.

The world has finally taken notice of ISIL’s outrageous behavior. Pope Francis called on the world to consider military action to protect Christian and other minorities in the region from genocide.