by Casey Murphy

Steven Sotloff, an American journalist, kidnapped by Islamic State (ISIS) in March 2013, was beheaded the first week of September and video was posted of the beheading.  The violent act was a “second message” to the U.S. In the video posted online, Sotloff says in a message scripted by his captors that he is “paying the price” for U.S. military intervention.

Sotloff, 31, was just starting out his journalism career, although did contribute to Time Magazine. In a recent message to Genean Giovanni, News Editor of the Middle East Newsweek magazine and former friend and colleague of Sotloff, “He’s concerned he was on a list and felt he had angered some of the rebels by taking footage of a hospital that had been bombed. He was paranoid but had the desire to tell the stories of the people in the Islamic State.”

The ISIS plan is to scare civilians so that they do not report on how people live and are treated in the Islamic State. The Islamic State has grown during the civil war in Syria. It swept into Iraq in June, seizing large parts of the country’s Sunni-dominated northern and western provinces. Obama ordered airstrikes on Iraq after ISIS fighters began targeting ethnic Yazidis and launching attacks on the Kurdish regional capital of Irbil. Obama says, “ We do not have a plan yet and is too soon to give steps on handling future threats,” as of September 9.

On September 10, Obama proposed his strategy of attacking ISIS but not putting troops on the ground. David Haines of Britain is said to be the next threat if the airstrikes in Iraq keep occurring. “Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people,” says masked ISIS figure.  ISIS still have small numbers of American hostages, according to WGNtv.