Obama To Deliver Statement On ISIS' Beheading Of American Journalist James Foley
The White House's National Security Council said Wednesday that the video released by the group, which has since been removed from YouTube, is authentic. The video showed a member of the group executing American journalist James Foley, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012.
"We have reached the judgment that this video is authentic. We will continue to provide updates as they are available," NSC spokesperson Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.
In the video, ISIS also threatened to kill another American journalist it said it was holding captive - Steven Sotloff, who was kidnapped near the Syrian-Turkish border in August 2013. He had been freelancing for Time and other publications.
The group said it killed Foley as an act of revenge for U.S. intervention in Iraq. Obama authorized the U.S. military to conduct airstrikes in Iraq nearly two weeks ago, in an attempt to aid Iraqi forces against the extremist militants.
Since then, according to the Pentagon, the U.S. has conducted more than 70 such strikes on targets including security checkpoints, vehicles, and weapons caches. The U.S. has not specified if any militants were killed in the strikes. It has said the vast majority of the strikes have been "successful."
During a press conference from the White House on Monday, Obama hailed the U.S.'s role in helping Iraqi and Kurdish forces retake the key strategic point of the Mosul Dam in northern Iraq. He said retaking the dam, which supplies electricity and water to much of Iraq, represented a "major step forward" in a battle against the militants.
The White House said Tuesday night that Obama had been briefed on the video while traveling on Air Force One. Obama returned to Martha's Vineyard on Tuesday, where he has been vacationing for parts of the last two weeks. He returned to Washington briefly over the weekend for two days of meetings.
This post will be updated when Obama speaks.