Outrage over Isis beheading of US journalist James Foley – live updates

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is said to be “horrified” by Foley’s apparent murder.

Her spokesman, Steffen Seibert, told reporters that the video released by Isis militants depicted “the barbaric, truly merciless murder of a person”. He added:

It shows that this terror group has nothing to offer but cruelty and fanaticism. The chancellor is horrified about the fate of the American journalist James Foley, who was violently abducted in 2012, although there is no official confirmation that it is his murder shown in the video.

The New York Post has been widely condemned after publishing a front page image taken from the Isis video showing Foley’s throat being cut.

It changed the image after one of its editions showed the screen grab accompanied by the headline “Savages”.

The Huffington Post has more.

The choice of a jihadi with a British accent to front the video of Foley’s killing is likely to have been aimed at causing maximum impact in the west, according to Prof Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King’s College London.

Speaking to the Guardian Neumann said British fighters had been carrying out “horrific acts” like beheadings, torture and executions for a year and a half, but this appeared to be the first with a western victim. He added:

They clearly wanted someone who spoke fluent English because they wanted it to create maximum impact, especially in the US, and because there are not that many Americans it was probably the best second option. They want this to have maximum impact on the west and for parts of it to be streamed on American television networks they needed an English speaker, so it was more about the English language than the nationality.

It’s not significant that British fighters have been beheading and torturing because that’s been happening for a year and a half. That sort of horrific stuff is something British jihadis have been doing for some time. You will find a number of instances of British jihadis executing, torturing and beheading other people – and we know it’s not just Brits but other Europeans doing it – and occasionally this has come to the surface. Most people beheaded before were not westerners so that’s why this is different. The significant thing is that this was an American and was connected to a direct message that ‘we are targeting you’.

Guardian columnist Owen Jones urges the world leaders to resist calls for retaliation against Isis. In an article for Comment is free he says this would simply play into the hands of the jihadis.

Foley’s murder will inevitably intensify calls for further western military involvement. Those agitating for such a course of action have a number of questions to answer. The “war on terror” began 13 years ago. It has involved bombs raining down on Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. And with what success? Jihadism is stronger than ever; Isis is not only more extreme than al-Qaida, but what it has achieved surely exceeds Osama bin Laden’s wildest ambitions. Who can deny that the west has served as a recruiting sergeant for Islamic extremism, that it effectively helped hand large swathes of Iraq and Libya over to such elements?

Anti-government activists in north-west Syria have paid tribute to Foley in a new banner.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage has urged the government to ban Britons who have gone to fight jihad in Iraq and Syria from returning to the UK.

In a statement he said:

It would be totally unforgivable and unacceptable for UK nationals who have made the decision to go and fight for Islamic State militants in the Middle East to be permitted to return to the UK and quietly slide back into our communities to take advantage of all that modern Britain has to offer.

I would say that in choosing to quit the UK to fight abroad, they have rendered themselves effectively stateless by conforming to an ideology of wanting to create a terrifying caliphate. If they choose to leave the UK they simply should not be allowed to return.

France has condemned the apparent murder of Foley, AFP reports.

“This is a barbaric act that plays on fear,” government spokesman Stephane Le Foll told reporters after Francois Hollande convened his first cabinet meeting after the summer break.

In a statement Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that if confirmed, the “disgusting assassination would show the true face of this ‘Caliphate of Barbarism’.”

Fabius added:

It merits the firmest condemnation from the international community and strengthens our determination to fight against the ‘Islamic State’ in accordance with Resolution 2170 of the UN Security Council” that condemns the activity of IS.

In such a sad moment, our thoughts go to the relatives of the journalist - a great professional, acclaimed by all in France - and in particular to his mother Diane Foley, whom we hosted last April.

More than ever, France is committed to the right of journalists to work safely. There can be no impunity for those that carried out these barbaric acts.

A British academic has cast doubt about the authenticity of the video of Foley’s apparent killing.

The British government has said the video appears to be genuine, and Foley’s family have accepted his death, but Christopher Davidson a Middle East specialist at Durham University is not so sure.

He tweeted:

The US military has been posting daily updates on its air strikes over Iraq. Its most recent update confirmed two more air strikes near the Mosul dam on Tuesday.

It was posted before news spread that Isis had threatened to kill another journalist if US air strikes continued.

You can listen to the London accent of Foley’s killer on this audio clip.

A linguistics expert has told British radio station LBC that the masked IS militant who beheaded James Foley is probably from London.

Claire Hardaker, a lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University, said:

We seem to have definitely southern vowels in there, we’ve got some interesting pronunciations - he says the word ‘Muslims’, he says it in quite an interesting way ...You kind of use a ‘Muz’ sound and he’s doing a ‘Mus’ ...as in he does an unvoiced ‘s’ when he says it ...

We’re definitely looking at a British accent, from the south and probably from London.

The former CIA deputy director, Michael Morrell, has described the murder of Foley as the Islamic State’s “first terrorist attack on the United States”.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has added his voice to the outrage over Foley’s killing.

The chief executive of Twitter has confirmed that the network is trying to block images and video of Foley’s killing.

Writing on Twitter Dick Costolo said: “We have been and are actively suspending accounts as we discover them related to this graphic imagery.”

The Independent has more on Isis’s video threat to kill another journalist Steven Sotloff.

In a video posted on YouTube, entitled ‘A Message to America’, the man purported to be Mr Sotloff was filmed being held by the militant who had apparently executed Foley.

The footage claimed Foley’s death is a revenge killing for the ongoing US air strikes in Iraq.

The jihadist, who speaks with a British accent, then addresses the US President, saying: “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.”

The man is wearing an orange shirt similar to that worn by Foley.

Sotloff, from Miami, was kidnapped near Aleppo in August 2013 and was believed to be held in Raqqa. His family was reportedly made aware of his disappearance but had chosen not to go public on the advice of officials.

The shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander, said it was “particularly concerning” that the “horrific” killing of Foley appeared to have been carried out by a British national.

In a statement he said:

The horrific footage of the killing of James Foley has shocked and outraged the world.

Suggestions that the attack may have been carried out by a UK national are particularly concerning and the Government must now work with international partners to establish the facts and uncover any possible information about the perpetrator.

Isis’s brutal campaign of terror is already threatening Iraq and the wider region. While the Foreign Secretary has again today ruled out the prospect of British troops being committed to Iraq in a combat role, Labour continues to support steps taken by the UK Government both to assist in the humanitarian effort in Iraq, and to help ensure the (Kurdish) peshmerga have the equipment and assistance they need to combat ISIL on the front line.

Germany’s development minister, Gerd Mueller, has accused Qatar of financing Islamic State militants, AFP reports.

“A story like this always has a history,” he said in an interview with public broadcaster ZDF. “Who is financing these troops? Hint: Qatar.”

Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel this week urged a “debate” about who has been and is financing the IS, but without naming any countries.

Here’s confirmation of Cameron reaction to Foley’s apparent murder.

Isis is reported to have to have attracted a record number of new recruits in Syria.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 6,000 men joined Isis in July. Most were from Syria, but they include 1,200 foreign fighters, it said.

James Brandon, head of research at the anti-extremist thinktank, the Quilliam Foundation, claimed that British jihadis are playing a leading role among Islamic State militants.

Brandon, a former journalist who was held hostage in Iraq, added:

EA World View has the full text of Foley’s statement before his killing:

It begins:

I call on my friends, family, and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the US government. For what will happen to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality.

Middle East analyst Charles Lister, visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Centre, sees the beheading of Foley as an attempt to provoke the US into a wider conflict.

BuzzFeed’s Mike Giglio said Isis is trying to intimidate the West.

The group may appear to be baiting the US — trying to draw the Obama administration into greater intervention in Iraq. But the more likely immediate goal is spreading fear — while using the publicity this video is generating to further boost its profile. Regardless of how the Obama administration reacts — and boots on the ground seem no more likely today than yesterday — Isis has now staked out its position as the group to support if you’re against the US.

A detailed account of Foley’s abduction published by Vanity Fair in May dismissed theories that he was taken by forces loyal to the Syrian government.

Foley was traveling from the rebel stronghold of Binnish en route to a rebel border crossing called Bab al-Hawa; the whole point of that circuitous route was to avoid the regime-held outpost of Fua and the attentions of the shabiha [pro-government militia].
Six months earlier the area would have been thick with regime agents, but now both Fua and Taftanaz airport were under siege by Syrian rebels and wild-eyed foreign jihadis. In extensive interviews with journalists who have worked the area and know it well, I talked to no one who had any enthusiasm for the theory that Foley could have been spirited away to Fua. (The Assad regime has denied having Foley in its custody.)

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimates there are 20 journalists currently missing in Syria.

Its chairman Sandra Mims Rowe, condemned Foley’s murder.
In a statement she said:

The barbaric murder of journalist James Foley, kidnapped in Syria and held almost two years, sickens all decent people. Foley went to Syria to show the plight of the Syrian people, to bear witness to their fight, and in so doing to fight for press freedom. Our hearts go out to his family, who had dedicated themselves to finding and freeing Jim.

In a background note the committee added:

Syria has been the most dangerous country in the world for journalists for more than two years. At least 69 other journalists have been killed covering the conflict there, including some who died over the border in Lebanon and Turkey. More than 80 journalists have been kidnapped in Syria; with frequent abductions, some of which go unpublicized, it is difficult to know exactly how many. CPJ estimates that approximately 20 journalists, both local and international, are currently missing in Syria. Many of them are believed to be held by Islamic State.

Journalists who worked with Foley have been paying their tributes. They include the Spanish reporter Javier Espinosa who was freed by a Islamist group in Syria earlier this year.

Writing on Vox, Fisher added:

My own interactions with Jim after he came home from Libya were scarce, but enough to glimpse the unfailing generosity and warmth that made him so beloved among his friends. Jim’s faith was something we all agreed not to discuss publicly while he was held in Syria, but it was the wellspring of his generosity. He had been freed from his own harrowing captivity in Libya for only a few days when he took it upon himself to help organize a memorial fund for Anton Hammerl, a South African photographer who had been killed in Libya a few feet from Jim and Clare on the day they were kidnapped, and who had left a wife and child behind. I helped Jim with this some, though I now wish I’d done more, and I helped him get his gear out of Libya ...

There will be many efforts in the coming days to derive meaning from Jim’s death. Some will say ISIS had him killed to punish the US for its recent air strikes against them in Iraq, some will say it was to egg the Americans on, and others will attribute it to simple madness.

I would rather derive meaning from Jim’s life. As a journalist, I want to celebrate his dedication to truth and understanding. But that would sell him short. It is clear even just by secondhand accounts from the family that would do anything to help him, even when he insisted on returning to a war zone, and from the friends who were so enriched by knowing him, that Jim’s value was so much more.

Foley’s last dispatch for the GlobalPost is published here. He wrote about how atrocities by Syrian rebels meant they were losing the support among residents in Syria’s second city of Aleppo.

Before he was captured in 2012, Foley was interviewed by Syrian activists after he visited the north-western Syrian town of Idlib.

He describes witnessing a Syrian helicopter attacking a village.

Foley’s mother Diane has released a moving message on a Facebook page which his family had set up to campaign for his release.

It read:

We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.

We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages. Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.

We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person. Please respect our privacy in the days ahead as we mourn and cherish Jim.

Britain’s foreign secretary Philip Hammond has expressed his outrage at the apparent beheading of Foley by Islamic State militants.

Speaking to BBC News he said it was “an appalling example of the brutality of this organisation”.

Asked about the British accent of the man who appeared to behead Foley in the video, Hammond said:

We have been saying for a long time that there are a significant number of British nationals in Syria and Iraq operating with extremist organisations.

That’s one of the reasons why this organisation represents such a direct threat to the UK’s national security.

Many of these people may seek at some point to return to the UK and they would then pose a direct threat to our domestic security ...

This is a poison, a cancer, what’s going on in Iraq and Syria and it risks spreading to other parts of the international community and affecting us all directly.”

Hammond said the intelligence agencies were tracking and monitoring Britons who could be involved with extremist groups in Syria and Iraq.

Hammond echoed those points in another interview for the Today programme.

“One of the reasons why what is going on in Syria and Iraq is a direct threat to our own national security is the presence of significant numbers of our nationals,” Hammond told the programme.

Hammond refused to discuss the presence of British special forces in Iraq. “We don’t comment on the disposition of British Special Forces,” he said.

Hammond defended the government’s refusal to recall parliament over Iraq. He said there would be a recall if the government decided to increase military involvement in the conflict. “At the moment there is no proposal to commit British troops into combat,” the foreign secretary said.

Hammond said it was inconcievable that Britain would team up with regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in the fight against Isis. But he conceded that Britain and Syria faced a common enemy in the Islamic State.

The involvement of a man with a British accent in Foley’s apparent beheading underlines the leading role played by British jihadis in Iraq and Syria, according to extremist expert Shiraz Maher senior fellow King’s College London.

Speaking on on the Today programme he said:

Unfortunately the British participation in the conflict raging in both Syria and Iraq is one of full participation. One that has seen them at the front lines, taking part in the conflict in every way ... Unfortunately they are some of the most vicious and vociferous fighters who are out there.

Maher pointed out that 250 Britons had returned from fighting in Syria.

Foley’s friend, Matthew Van Dyke, has spoken of his horror at the death of his fellow journalist.

Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Van Dyke said: “It’s just horrible. I’m still trying to digest what happened. It seems like a complete nightmare hearing news reports that my friend has been beheaded, and seeing the images. It’s absolutely horrible.”

Van Dyke said Foley was aware of the dangers of reporting in Syria where he was captured in 2012. “He had a love for what he did, and he wanted to tell the story of the Syrian people,” Van Dyke said.