(Reuters) – The Islamic State militant group released a video on Tuesday purporting to show the beheading of a second American hostage, journalist Steven Sotloff, raising the stakes in its confrontation with Washington over U.S. air strikes on its insurgents in Iraq. A masked figure in the video seen by Reuters also issued a threat against a British hostage, a man the group named as David Haines, and warned governments to back off “this evil […]
Tag: Islamic State
Obama says he does not yet have broad strategy for Islamic State
(Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he has not yet developed a broad strategy for confronting Islamic State in an acknowledgement that he has not decided whether to launch air strikes against the militant group in Syria. “We don’t have a strategy yet,” Obama told a White House news conference ahead of meeting top national security advisers in the Situation Room about how to proceed against Islamic State. Obama’s decision to begin U.S. surveillance flights […]
Concern grows over Westerners joining fight in Iraq and Syria
(Reuters) — Concern was mounting in the United States and Europe on Wednesday (August 27) over the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq after news that an American man supected of fighting alongside Islamic State (IS) militants had been killed in Syria. U.S. officials confirmed Douglas McAuthur McCain’s presence and death in Syria, amid reports of dozens of Americans joining the ranks of foreign fighters in the war-torn country. U.S. intelligence agencies estimate roughly 7,000 foreign fighters in total are operating in Syria, out of roughly […]
Islamic State grabs Iraqi dam, oilfield in victory over Kurds
(Reuters) – Islamic State fighters seized control of Iraq’s biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns on Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June. Capture of the Mosul Dam after an offensive of barely 24 hours could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities or withhold water from farms, sharply raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister […]





