'Jihadi John is a dead man walking': ISIS executioner who threatens to behead British hostage will be hunted down like 'Bin Laden' says ex-head of Navy

The government could make a fresh attempt to rescue a British hostage threatened with execution by ISIS militants who have already filmed themselves brutally beheading two American journalists. 

Foreign secretary Phillip Hammond said the UK is looking 'at every possible option to protect' the 44-year-old British citizen after a previous U.S-led rescue attempt failed to secure his release.

Details of his capture emerged in a chilling propaganda video titled 'A Second Message to America', in which U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff is savagely murdered by an ISIS executioner who speaks with a British accent - believed to be the same man who beheaded James Foley two weeks ago. 

Barack Obama today described the video as 'barbaric' adding that the U.S. will not be intimidated by the radical Islamists and vowing to build a coalition to 'degrade and destroy' the group.

It came just before the President touched down on Air Force One at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, ahead of a Nato meeting in Wales.  

Threat: David Cameron chaired a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency response committee today where is understood fresh attempts to rescue the British hostage were discussed

Today Lord West, the former head of the Royal Navy, described the executioner as a 'dead man walking' and said U.S. special forces will hunt him down in the same way they tracked and killed Osama Bin Laden.

 

The British hostage shown in the video is a 44-year-old man from central Scotland who was captured by Islamists close to the Syrian border with Turkey last year while working for an aid company.

Although his name is known, the man's family have requested that it not be made public.

The Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond this afternoon said that a preliminary analysis of the video of Sotloff's beheading suggested it was genuine.

The brutal killing is thought to have been carried out by the same masked, British-accented killer who beheaded US reporter James Foley a fortnight ago.

This afternoon former security minister Lord West said: 'We probably know already who he is, we certainly will know soon.

Tough talk: Home Secretary Theresa May (right) branded ISIS 'murderous psychopaths'. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond (left) suggested the government could make a fresh attempt to rescue the threatened hostage

Threat: David Cameron is chairing a meeting of the government's Cobra emergency response committee today, where he will rule-out any 'knee-jerk reaction' after ISIS threatened to murder a British hostage (pictured)

'I would like to see him arraigned in the Hague for war crimes,' he said, but said it was more likely that the United States would deal with him in the same way as Osama Bin Laden.

'He is a dead man walking, and he wants to think about that,' he added.

Lord West also called for military action against ISIS, saying: 'A year and a week ago I was very, very firmly against an attack on Syria.

'And Assad had never started killing British citizens and had never said he wanted to destroy the British state...That is rather different from Isis and Isil. I refuse to call them the Islamic State because that gives them credibility.'

Murder: American journalist Steven Sotloff pictured in an ISIS video before he was executed. He was killed two weeks after James Foley died in the same way

Response: Speaking in Estonia today, Barack Obama said the U.S. will not be intimidated by ISIS after the beheading of Steven Sotloff and will build a coalition to 'degrade and destroy' the group

HOW US HOSTAGE VICTIM STEVEN SOTLOFF, 31, TRIED TO HIDE JUDAISM FROM ISIS CAPTORS 

Steven Sotloff held Israeli citizenship, Israel said today after apparently withholding the information to stem the risks to the captive.

'Cleared for publication: Steven Sotloff was #Israel citizen RIP,' tweeted Paul Hirschson, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Sotloff's death was extensively covered by Israeli media, which identified the 31-year-old reporter as Jewish and an occasional contributor but withheld detail after ISIS announced he could be killed two weeks ago.

'We refused to acknowledge any relationship with him in case it was dangerous for him,' said Avi Hoffman, editor of the Jerusalem Report magazine, which had published Sotloff's work.

The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, quoting a former fellow captive, said Sotloff had kept his Judaism a secret from the Islamist insurgents, pretending he was sick when he fasted for the Yom Kippur holiday.

Israeli media reports said the U.S.-born Sotloff immigrated to Israel in 2005 and studied at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, a private college near Tel Aviv

'They clearly are happy to kill British citizens and we know they have said they want to destroy the British state... That is a different thing - that is why we have military forces,' Lord West added.

'I'm not saying we should just go immediately and invade them, that would be stupid', he said, but added that military options should be part of the ' overall planning', along with diplomatic methods, interrupting money flows, and working with allies. 

Lord West said he was 'sure' that the Government would be looking closely at possible military options to help 'destroy this abhorrent group of people'. 

The disturbing threat leaves the Prime Minister with the chilling prospect of one British national murdering another in the name of ISIS' brutal interpretation of Islam.

At Prime Minister's questions this afternoon, David Cameron told MPs: 'This country will never give into terrorism. Our opposition to ISIS will continue at home and abroad.

'A country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers. If they think we will weaken in the face of their threats they could not be more wrong.'

Labour leader Ed Miliband backed the stance, adding: 'Events like this must strengthen not weaken our resolve to defeat them.' 

Speaking after this morning's meeting of the Government's emergency Cobra committee, Mr Hammond said: 'You're aware, of course, of the rescue attempt that took place some time ago – unfortunately unsuccessfully.'

'You wouldn't expect me to discuss the various options that we will be considering, but I can assure that we will look at every possible option to protect this person.'

The Foreign Secretary said the hostage situation would not alter the Government's overall strategy on dealing with Islamic State militants.

'It can't allow us to change our overall strategy. We've been aware of this hostage, of course, for some time, but we have to deal with IS on the basis of the wider threat that they pose to the British public, as well as to this individual.'

Mr Hammond He said the situation would not affect the likelihood of British airstrikes against the militants.

'It doesn't make any difference at all to our strategic planning. As the Prime Minister said, we will look very carefully at the options available to us to support the legitimate government of Iraq and Kurdistan in defending themselves from the threat of Isil.'

'And if we judge that airstrikes could be beneficial, could be the best way to do that then we will certainly consider them, but we've made no decision to do so at the moment.' 

Grieving: Murdered American journalist Steven Sotloff's mother Shirley returns to her Miami home today

Last week: Sotloff's mother Shirley (right) appealed directly for the return of her son last week. Last night, ISIS released a video that purported to show the beheading of her son online

MOMENTS BEFORE HIS DEATH, STEVEN SOTLOFF'S FINAL WORDS 

Taunting Obama: Sotloff's masked executioner says the killing is in retaliation for US airstrikes in Iraq

A second message to America:

'I am Steven Joel Sotloff.

'I'm sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing before you.

'And now this is the time for my message:

'Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be the preservation of American lives and interests, so why is that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?

'Am I not an American citizen?

'We've spent billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars and we've lost thousands of our troops in our previous fighting against the Islamic State, so what are the people's interests in reigniting war?

'From what little I know about foreign policy, I remember a time when you could not win an election without promising to bring our troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan and to close down Guantanamo.

'Here you are now, Obama, nearing the end of your term, and having achieved none of the above and deceivingly marching us the American people in the blazing fire.' 

At Prime Minister's Questions this afternoon, Mr Cameron strongly condemned the 'sickening and brutal' killing of Sotloff and said he felt 'shock and anger that it again appears to have been carried out by a British citizen.'

'All our thoughts are with the British hostage and his family. Their ordeal is unimaginable,' he said.

'It is important that we are clear about the nature of the threat we are facing. It makes no distinction between cultures, countries and religions. There is no way to appease it.

'The only way to defeat it is to stand firm and to send a very straightforward message - a country like ours will not be cowed by these barbaric killers.

'If they think that we will weaken in the face of their threats, they are wrong. It will have the opposite effect.'

We will be more forthright in the defence of the values - liberty under the rule of law, freedom, democracy - that we hold dear, and I'm sure a united message to that effect will go forward from this House today.' 

EXPERTS OPINION ON WHY ISIS BEHEADING VIDEO WAS AN ACT OF DESPERATION 

Andreas Krieg is a Middle East security analyst at King's College London in Qatar:

Overall, I think this video is an act of desperation. IS is on the defensive particularly in Iraq.

Although I do not think that they can be defeated militarily, they nonetheless face considerable obstacles. 

First, domestically it will become increasingly difficult to administer the territory they hold and to control its inhabitants through coercion only. 

They have failed to appeal to the people they control. Some pledged allegiance for pragmatic reasons and some out of fear, but the vast majority of people reject IS’ ideology. 

IS are seen as external forces as well, mostly staffed with foreign mujahedeen often not speaking any Arabic and little knowledge of Islam. 

So not being able to consolidate public support is their major weakness. Second, IS has not been able to advance on the Iraqi front any further. 

Yet, they need military operational successes in order to fuel the propaganda machine. So far they still have vast stretches of territory in Northern Syria they can easily overrun. 

But if a proxy in Syria could be found that the West felt comfortable to prop up, IS might face military stalemate there as well. 

So overall, IS is not in as good a situation long-term as many in the West make it out to be. 

These videos certainly give the impression to fearful Western publics that IS is omnipotent and that even superpowers such as the US cannot do anything to stop them. 

If they fail in Syria and Iraq, which can happen if Sunni tribesmen in Western and Northern Iraq withdrew their consent and allegiance, they might have to look for battleground elsewhere (Chechnya might be such as place).

Yet, these irrational threats made against Russia should not be taken seriously. 

As IS is an organization with flat hierarchies, many of the various fighting cells and propaganda cells can distribute messages and propaganda without actually representing the organization’s grand strategy or vision, if there is any.

The threatened British hostage, who UK media are not naming at the request of the family but who has been named and pictured around the world, is believed to be an aid worker that was based on the Turkish border of Syria working with victims of war.

Members of the hostage's family, including his brother, were on their way to his parents home last night to comfort them it is understood, according to the Telegraph. The newspaper quoted an unidentified relation as saying: 'We not allowed to say anything.' 

The 44-year-old aid worker from central Scotland is believed to have been taken hostage in a refugee camp near the north Syrian village of Atmeh in March last year, shortly after arriving in the country on a short-term contract.

He is understood to have previously worked in South Sudan in 2012, where a former colleague found him to be 'a very solid, stand-up guy. The sort of person you can rely on,' according to The Times. 

During his year in captivity, the man has seen at least six of his fellow hostages freed - one Italian, one Dane and four French - after their governments paid an estimated £5 million ransom per person.

It remains unclear whether the British man's captors have tired to negotiate a ransom for his release. 

Following the release of Sotloff's execution footage, another video emerged showing ISIS militants personally threatening to kill Russian president Vladimir Putin if he doesn't declare Chechnya an independent state

The ISIS militants sit in the cockpit of a captured Russian-made fighter aircraft to make threats against Putin

WAS THE STEVEN SOTLOFF EXECUTION VIDEO POSTED ONLINE BY ACCIDENT?

The video of Steven Sotloff's brutal murder may have been accidentally published online too early by an ISIS Twitter user who jumped the gun.

When news first broke of a new ISIS beheading video, it was not widely available on Islamist websites. James Foley's execution footage, by contrast, flooded social media and the dark corners of the web all at once.

Vocative.com reports that only one ISIS Twitter account initially posted the video.

Another ISIS-affiliated social media account called out the early release and told the user to remove it – but by then, the video was already widely available online.

Later, ISIS even issued an apology to its followers for the confusion.

'Clarification about the mistake was made by 'Uyun al-Ummah' account, that has published the video before the official time,' an ISIS official wrote.

'The user saw a tweet with the video and thought it was published officially. We tried to remove the video after we understood that his was published by mistake, and we are sorry to the followers of the Islamic State.'

The social media back-and-forth – all of it in Arabic – shows just how sophisticated the social media strategy for ISIS has become.

It appears multiple people had copies of the video and that they were meant to wait until the proscribed time to publish it – in order to flood online channels and ensure it was widely distributed. 

After this morning's Cobra meeting Home Secretary Theresa May said: 'We are looking at the video that was produced yesterday.

'Yet again we see a barbaric act being undertaken by Isil, who are group of murderous psychopaths. Their brutality is clear.

'Our thoughts today must, of course, be with Steven Sotloff's family and friends at this very difficult time.

'As far as the Government is concerned, we recognise the threat that is posed by Isil and we are taking steps, and will continue to take steps, to make sure we have the powers that are right to protect our national security.

'Our determination to deal with this remains and, as the Prime Minister made clear in the House of Commons on Monday, we are looking at a number of areas of potential legislation where increased powers could help to fill some gaps that there might be in our current ability to deal with these issues.'

This morning Barack Obama said that the U.S. will not be intimidated by ISIS and will build a coalition to 'degrade and destroy' the group.

Obama still did not give a timeline for deciding on a strategy to go after the extremist group's operations in Syria, saying: 'It'll take time to roll them back.'

He vowed the U.S. would not forget the 'terrible crime against these two fine young men,' meaning Sotloff and Foley.

'Our reach is long and justice will be served,' Obama said adding that he will continue to fight the militant threat and the 'barbaric and ultimately empty vision' it represents.

'Our objective is to make sure that ISIL is not an ongoing threat to the region,' he said, using an alternative acronym for the militant group.

'And we can accomplish that. It's going to take some time and it's going to take some effort.'

Former Labour Foreign Secretary Jack Straw backed the government's stance. 'This idea of a knee-jerk reaction should be pushed aside,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

'We need people to look seriously and soberly at the situation.'

He warned against being 'paralysed by the past' in the wake of the 2003 Iraq invasion.

In the video, Mr Sotloff - a freelancer for Time magazine among other publications - is pictured in a Guantanamo Bay-style orange jump suit against a desert backdrop.

He addresses U.S. President Barack Obama directly, saying: 'You've spent billions of pounds US taxpayers' dollars and we have lost thousands of our troops in our previous fighting against the Islamic State, so where is the people's interest in reigniting this war?'

The jihadist, believed to be a Briton nicknamed 'John' by captives,says: 'I am back, Obama, and I am back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings and ... on Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings.

'Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.' 

Pentagon says US will continue to hit IS

PM EXPECTED TO COME UNDER FRESH PRESSURE TO JOIN U.S. AIRSTRIKES AGAINST ISIS TARGETS

David Cameron is likely to come under pressure at Prime Minister's Questions to step up Britain's military involvement.

On Monday, before details of the British hostage were made public, he faced repeated calls in the Commons for the UK to join the US in air strikes.

Former Defence Secretary Liam Fox asked the PM: 'In what circumstances would the United Kingdom decide to join, rather than simply support, US air strikes on ISIL military positions?'

Sir Gerald Howarth, a former Minister for International Security Strategy, said: 'ISIL represents a substantial threat to the continued integrity of Iraq, and American airstrikes have been successful in halting its further advance. Would it not be better for the Royal Air Force to join in that measure?'

Mr Cameron repeatedly stressed that while he supported US air strikes, his judgement to date has been for Britain to 'provide aid and political support and to help with certain military aspects'.

But he suggested that if the circumstances changed, he could order strikes without consulting Parliament.

'If there was a direct threat to British national interests, or if, as in the case of Libya, we had to act very rapidly to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, the British Government must reserve the right to act immediately and inform the House of Commons afterwards,' he said.

Dressed in black and wielding a short knife, the extremist also warns other governments against entering 'this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State'.

The video, which ends with a threat to the British hostage, has surfaced in the week that world leaders are due to gather in Wales for a NATO summit.

Mr Obama boarded Air Force One last night without giving a response to the video, and landed in Estonia a short time ago, ahead of talks with leaders of the Baltic states over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and concerns over the threat posed by Russia for other former Soviet states.

In a statement last night, Mr Cameron said: 'If verified, this is a despicable and barbaric murder. My thoughts and prayers are with Mr Sotloff's family and friends as they deal with this appalling and tragic situation.'

'As I have said consistently over the last few weeks, [ISIS] terrorists speak for no religion...They threaten Syrians, Iraqis, Americans and British people alike and make no distinction between Muslims, Christians or any other faith.

'We have already been working hard to keep British people safe and we will continue to do all we can to protect our country and our people from these barbaric terrorists.

In a brief statement, a spokesman for Mr Sotloff's family said they 'know of this horrific tragedy and are grieving privately'.

The journalist was seized in Syria in August 2013 and had not been seen until he appeared in the video of Mr Foley's killing released by IS on August 20.

Last week Mr Sotloff's mother Shirley made an emotional video plea for the extremists to be 'merciful' and spare her son.

'Absolutely disgusting': David Cameron has hit out at the killers that have beheaded a second US journalist and threatened to kill a British hostage. He chaired a Cobra meeting to establish Britain's response this morning

In the video released last night, Sotloff, 31, appears in a orange jumpsuit before he is beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.

The executioner tells the camera: 'I'm back, Obama, and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State.'

Sotloff, 31, from Miami, who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished in Syria in August 2013 and was not seen again until he appeared in a video released online last month that showed Foley's beheading.

In the new video that shows the killing of Sotloff, the executioner points his knife menacingly at the camera as he speaks.

Clad in the same black garb he wore during Foley's execution, the killer has a pistol strapped under his arm in a shoulder holster.

The black flag of the Islamic State can be seen waving in the background.

Sotloff calmly read a statement moments before his murder. 'I'm sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing,' he says.

He adds to the camera: 'Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?'

While he speaks, a militant calmly holds a knife at his side and stands next to Sotloff.

The man then taunts Obama on camera.

Sotloff's mother had pleaded for his release last week in a video directed at the Islamic State group

Sotloff's death was extensively covered by Israeli media, which identified the 31-year-old reporter as Jewish

Sotloff's mother had pleaded for his release last week in a video directed at the Islamic State group.

Addressing the leader of the Islamic State group by name, Shirley Sotloff said in a video her son was 'an innocent journalist' who shouldn't pay for U.S. government actions in the Middle East over which he has no control.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest offered his sympathies to the Sotloff family. He said of the video: 'This is something that the administration has obviously been watching carefully since this threat against Mr. Sotloff's life was originally made a few weeks ago,' he added.

'I'm not in a position to confirm the authenticity of that video, or reports, obviously,' he cautioned, 'since I just walked out here.'

'But if there is a video that has been released, it is something that will be analyzed very carefully by the U.S. government and our intelligence officials to determine its authenticity.'

ISIS MURDERED 770 MEN IN MASS EXECUTIONS AFTER SEIZING CONTROL OF THE IRAQI CITY OF TIKRIT IN JUNE, TOP HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP CLAIMS

ISIS militants killed up to 770 men in mass executions at five locations in Tikrit after seizing the city in northern Iraq in June, according to new evidence produced by a top human rights organisation.

Human Rights Watch used videos and satellite imagery, as well information from a survivor of the killings, to identify a further three mass execution sites, tripling the estimated number of victims - all or most of them thought to be captured Iraqi army soldiers.

And the group's researchers believe the actual number killed could be much higher. 

The day after taking control of Tikrit - the home town of former dictator Saddam Hussein - on June 11, ISIS claimed to have killed 1,700 'Shia members of the army' and posted videos of hundreds of men in civilian clothing who it claimed were surrendered soldiers.

ISIS militants lead away a group of captured Iraqi soldiers after seizing the city of Tikrit on June 14

Photos released on social media later showed captives being loaded on to trucks and forced to lie with hands bound in three shallow trenches, where masked gunmen were pictured apparently firing weapons at them.

On June 27, Human Rights Watch identified two of the trenches in a field near Tikrit's Water Palace, where it estimated that 160-190 men died. 

Later analysis of a new video released by IS suggests that at least two previously-unknown rounds of executions also took place at the palace, with between 115 and 140 deaths, said HRW.

The organisation has now identified three further sites, where it believes hundreds more killings took place, bringing the number of deaths for which evidence is available to between 560 and 770.

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