MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - On Thursday afternoon, Pope Francis phoned the bereaved relatives of a US journalist who was executed by an ISIS fighter in Syria to offer consolation and assure them of his prayers, Catholic News Service cited Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman, as saying.
In a video released on August 19 which has been confirmed as authentic by US officials, an Islamic State militant beheads journalist James Foley and addresses President Barack Obama, saying that if the US intervention continues, another American journalist will be executed.
Foley, who went missing in Syria in late 2012, had been a freelance reporter who mainly worked in troubled areas. He wrote until recently for the US Global Post.
Speaking to the nation on Wednesday, President Obama called for the global community to respond to ISIS, a militant group that has taken over vast territory in both Iraq and Syria, having already claimed thousands of lives.
