US PRESIDENT BARACK Obama has made his strongest comments yet about the Islamic State militants responsible for the beheading of an American journalist.
Speaking in Massachusetts tonight, Obama said the “entire world” was appalled by the brutal murder of James Foley.
The US president said that the militants responsible are not representative of Islam.
“ISIL speaks for no religion,” he said, using the alternative name for the Islamic State, who are also known as ISIS. “Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents”.
No just god would stand for what they did yesterday, and what they do every single day.
He said that the group “had no place in the 21st century”, and warned about retribution from the US.
When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what is necessary to see that justice is done.
“From governments and peoples across the Middle East, there has to be a common effort to extract this kind of cancer so that it does not spread,” he said.
He said he had spoken to Foley’s parents earlier today.
“I… told them that we are all heartbroken at their loss, and join with them in honouring Jim,” President Obama said.
“The world is shaped by people like Jim Foley, and the overwhelming majority of humanity who are appalled by those who killed him”.
The US National Security Council confirmed today that the gruesome video showing James Foley being beheaded by a man dressed in black is authentic.
The almost five-minute-long video entitled A Message to America shows the journalist killed by a man speaking with what appears to be a British accent.
It is not yet known when or where the video was recorded.
Foley was abducted while he was working in Northern Syria in November 2012.
AFP, one of the news agencies for which he worked, has released this video showing the dangers he faced in his work to document what was happening in Syria.
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