MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) – Syrian journalists often fall victim to militant attacks, with many held captive by terrorists, head of the Syrian Journalists Union, Elias Murad, told RIA Novosti.
"We, Syrian journalists, have been subject to crimes by terrorists, who have kidnapped and killed many journalists and attacked many media [representatives],” Murad said.
The union recently sent a letter to the Arab Journalists Union asking the organization to pressure the countries assisting numerous terrorist groups kidnapping reporters, the union head said.
Murad also said the union condemned the killing of US journalist James Foley, who was missing since he was seized in Syria in November of 2012. On Wednesday, Islamic State (IS) militants released a video online showing Foley's beheading.
The video, entitled "A Message to America," features a man who appears to be the American journalist brutally executed by a masked IS militant speaking with a British accent, claiming the beheading is in response to US airstrikes against the IS in northern Iraq.
The IS, a radical Sunni group that has been active in Syria, but started launching attacks in northern and western Iraq in June, also claimed to be holding another American journalist, Steven Sotloff, who appears at the end of the video, and said his life depends on Obama’s next move.
“We vigorously condemn the execution of any journalist and we are sorry that journalists became subjects of torture regardless of their nationality," Murad said.
Later that month, the radicals announced that they established a caliphate in Iraq and Syria. In August, after Iraq asked the international community for help, the United States started launching air strikes against IS positions in the north of the country. The strikes targeted militants advancing on Mount Sinjar, the Mosul Dam and the Kurdish capital of Irbil.
