A yellow ribbon hangs on a tree outside the family home of James Foley in Rochester, New Hampshire. RIGHT: Sotloff is pictured in this undated photo obtained by Reuters.

 

 AFP/Washington

 

US special forces were sent into Syria this year to try to rescue American hostages held by Islamist militants, US officials said, as international revulsion mounted yesterday over the beheading of journalist James Foley.

President Barack Obama demanded that the world take action against the “cancer” of jihadist extremism after the execution of the American journalist by Islamic State militants who have seized swathes of Syria and Iraq.

Outraged US allies have pledged to help in the battle against the Islamic State, sending in weapons and other aid to Kurdish forces fighting the extremists in northern Iraq, while Washington pressed on with air strikes.

US government officials confirmed on Wednesday that special forces had been sent to Syria over the summer to try to rescue people held hostage by the IS militants, reportedly including Foley.

“This operation involved air and ground components and was focused on a particular captor network within ISIL (IS),” Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said in a statement, without confirming if Foley was among the captives. “Unfortunately, the mission was not successful because the hostages were not present at the targeted location.”

The White House said Obama had “authorised action at this time because it was the national security team’s assessment that these hostages were in danger with each passing day in ISIL (IS) custody”.

In the execution video, a black-clad militant said that Foley, a 40-year-old freelance journalist, was killed to avenge US air strikes against IS.

The man, speaking with a British accent, then paraded a second US reporter, Steven Sotloff, before the camera and said he, too, would die unless Obama changed course.

In the five-minute video, Foley is seen kneeling on the ground, dressed in an orange outfit that resembles those worn by prisoners held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

Foley was kidnapped in northern Syria in November 2012 and his grisly murder has provoked revulsion and condemnation across the globe.

“When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done,” Obama said on Wednesday as US jets continued to strike IS targets in Iraq despite the threat hanging over Sotloff.

The State Department has asked for 300 more US troops to be sent to Iraq to protect US facilities.

“We will be vigilant and we will be relentless ... from governments and peoples across the Middle East, there has to be a common effort to extract this cancer so it does not spread,” Obama said.

 

Captors demanded $132mn for Foley: employer

 

Journalist James Foley’s jihadist captors had demanded a ransom of €100mn – $132mn – for his release, his employer GlobalPost said yesterday after a video of the American’s gruesome execution was made public.

“GlobalPost CEO Philip Balboni confirms that the initial ransom demand from Jim Foley’s captors was €100mn,” a spokesman for the news website told AFP.

Foley had been reporting for GlobalPost from Syria when he was abducted in November 2012, and Balboni had been closely involved in efforts to locate and free the photojournalist.

The Islamic extremist group which calls itself the Islamic State has marauded across large areas of Iraq in recent months.

On Tuesday it published a video showing one of its members beheading Foley.

Balboni said that the captors made contact with GlobalPost and the Foley family fewer than half a dozen times, and “the kidnappers never really negotiated” over their huge sum, but simply made their demand.

“We never took the €100mn figure seriously,” Balboni told CNN.

Balboni said that he and the family provided all information about their search for Foley and their contact with his captors to authorities at the FBI and State Department.

The US government states it does not pay ransoms for hostages. But Balboni referred to the release of several European hostages by the group earlier this year, likely upon payment of ransoms that were “dramatically less” than what Islamic State sought for Foley.

The family and GlobalPost were seeking to raise money “in the range” of the amount paid for the other hostages, Balboni added, without mentioning a dollar amount.

But he said that after initial messages the line of communication with the jihadists went cold until August 13, when they sent a terrifying message to the Foleys that their son would be killed.

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