In the latest footage, the 31-year-old reporter Steven Sotloff calmly addresses the camera to say he is a victim of President Barack Obama’s decision to press on with air strikes in Iraq against the jihadists.
Obama later Tuesday authorised about 350 more American troops to beef up security at US diplomatic facilities and protect personnel in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
At the end of the five-minute video recording, discovered online by the SITE terrorism monitoring group and seen by AFP, the militant threatens another captive, identified as British citizen David Cawthorne Haines.
“I’m back, Obama, and I’m back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State,” the black-clad jihadist says, wielding a combat knife and speaking in a London accent.
This was a reference to a video issued last month in which US journalist James Foley was murdered, again by a suspected British foreign fighter, and in almost identical fashion.