UNITED NATIONS, August 20 (RIA Novosti) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Wednesday the beheading by Islamic State of American freelance journalist James Foley.
The UN statement said Ban “condemns in the strongest terms the horrific murder of journalist James Foley” and “extends his deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Mr. Foley.”
After some hours of delay, the US National Security Council on Wednesday announced that “the US Intelligence Community has analyzed the recently released video, showing US citizens James Foley and Steven Sotloff. We have reached the judgment that this video is authentic.”
UN Secretary General Ban concluded that “the perpetrators of this and other such horrific crimes must be brought to justice.”
The Islamic State is a radical Sunni group that has been active in Syria, but started launching attacks in northern and western Iraq in June.
Later that month, the radicals announced that they had established an Islamic caliphate. 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.
IS militants threatened to attack US targets in a YouTube video released Monday, in which they warned that they would “drown all of you [Americans] in blood” and would attack them “in any place” should US airstrikes kill any of its members.
