After beheading James Wright Foley, the Islamic State militants have threatened to do the same to fellow American journalist Steven Sotloff, who was reportedly made to watch the decapitation of Foley.
According to The Independent, in the YouTube video, titled 'A Message to America' - which shows the beheading of Foley, Sotloff is also shown at the end, being held by the same militant who executed Foley.
After killing Foley, the IS militant threatens to behead Sotloff. The militant reportedly says that Sotloff's life depends on the next move by the US.
#ISIS say the life of Steven Joel Sotloff depends on Obama's next decision. pic.twitter.com/77R2qZqNtg
— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) August 19, 2014
Before beheading Foley, the militant made it very clear that he was being executed for the crimes of the US.
Sotloff has worked for TIME, the National Interest and Media Line. He reportedly went missing in mid-2013. The last tweet on his official page @stevensotloff was posted on 3 August 2013.
The Wire noted that Sotloff went missing near Aleppo, Syria on 4 August 2013, and his family were aware of the situation but did not want to publicise the information. He was being held in Raqqa.
However, it still needs to be investigated on how both Foley and Sotloff, who were reportedly detained by the Syrian government, ended up in the captivity of the Islamic State.
GlobalPost, the publication for which Foley was working for before he was captured, had told WBUR.org that Foley and another American journalist were being held in a detention facility in Damascus.
"We further believe that the facility is under the control of the Syrian air force intelligence service. Based on what we have learned it is likely that Jim[Foley] is being held with one or more Western journalists, including most likely at least one other American journalist," GlobalPost CEO Phil Balboni had stated.
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Foley and Sotloff are among the 20 journalists, who were reported missing in the country since its civil war began in 2011.
