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James Foley beheading: President Obama says US will continue to fight Islamic State, following murder of American journalist James Foley beheading: President Obama says US will continue to fight Islamic State, following murder of American journalist
(35 minutes later)
President Barack Obama on Wednesday vowed that the United States will not be swayed from airstrikes against Islamic State after the group beheaded an American journalist, an act he said is proof that the militants stand for no religion. President Barack Obama has branded Islamic State (IS) fighters a “cancer” in the Middle East, and said the US will not be swayed from carrying out airstrikes against the group after it beheaded an American journalist.
Obama's response to the execution of James Foley marked his strongest condemnation yet of Islamic State militants, and he gave no sign of a pause in U.S. targeting of militant positions in Iraq. In his strongest condemnation of the Sunni militants formerly known as Isis, Mr Obama said the group believes they are at war with the West, but are in fact terrorising their own neighbours.
“The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done,” he said. Mr Obama added that he had spoken with the family of James Foley, the 40-year-old freelance reporter who was filmed being murdered in the desert by a black-clad fighter.
Obama's remarks, to reporters covering his vacation on the island of Martha's Vineyard, came shortly after the White House announced that a video showing the beheading of Foley had been authenticated by the U.S. intelligence community. Mr Obama's remarks came shortly after the White House announced that the video had been authenticated by the US intelligence community.
The beheading appeared to mark a turning point in the growing U.S. focus on Islamic State as a potential threat to American interests, but whether it will lead to an intensified bombing campaign was not yet clear. Separately, Mr Foley's parents confirmed on a Facebook page dedicated to their son’s release that the 40-year-old reporter had died. “We have never been prouder of our son Jim,” the page read.
The United States has launched dozens of airstrikes against Islamic State targets in order to protect the religious minority Yazidis in Iraq and prevent the takeover of the Mosul Dam out of concern that a breach in the structure could end up flooding Baghdad, where the U.S. embassy is situated. During the address in Massachusetts, Mr Obama said: “ISIL speaks for no religion…No just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day,” referring to the group’s advance across Syria and Iraq, which has seen it kill by the thousands.
James Foley in Syria, 2012 Obama's remarks carried a tough message about the Islamic State's harsh penalties against anyone who does not agree to accept its brand of Islam. Calling their ideology “bankrupt”, he added that IS offers “nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision and the collapse of any definition of civilized behaviour”.
He said militants have rampaged across cities and villages, abducted women and children and subjected them to torture and rape and killed Muslims, both Sunni and Shia, by the thousands. “One thing we can all agree on is that a group like ISIL [IS] has no place in the 21st century,” Obama said.
“No just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day,” he said. ”The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless,” Mr Obama said of the situation. But the President made no reference to the threat from the militant who appeared to have beheaded Mr Foley that he would soon murder another journalist Steven Sotloff.
“Their ideology is bankrupt. They may claim, out of expediency, that they are at war with the United States or the West, but the fact is, they terrorize their neighbors and offer them nothing but an endless slavery to their empty vision and the collapse of any definition of civilized behavior,” Obama said. “When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done,“ he said.
Reuters The beheading appeared to mark a turning point in the growing US focus on Islamic State as a potential threat to American interests.
Since the video was released Tuesday, the US military has pressed ahead by conducting nearly a dozen airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq.
The United States has launched dozens of airstrikes against Islamic State targets in order to protect the religious minority Yazidis in Iraq and prevent the takeover of the Mosul Dam out of concern that a breach in the structure could end up flooding Baghdad, where the US embassy is situated.
Following Mr Obama’s address, US officials said that military planners are considering sending more American forces to Iraq to provide additional security around Baghdad.