Steven Sotloff: The American Journalist Whose Life Fanatics Say Is In Obama’s Hands

An IS militant with a man purported to be US journalist
Steven Sotloff in a still from the group's video

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Following the killing of James Foley by Islamic State militants, a second kidnapped journalist is threatened with execution

His friend Anne Marloe put it best on Twitter: “Steve Sotloff lived in Yemen for years, spoke good Arabic, deeply loved Islamic world.. for this he is threatened with beheading.”

Originally from Miami, Florida, freelance reporter Steven Joel Sotloff had been based in the Libyan city of Benghazi when he went on assignment to Syria just over a year ago.

Captured close to the Turkish border near Aleppo, he is believed to have been held in Raqqa.

Today he finds himself in the hands of Islamic State fundamentalists whose capacity for bloodshed and murder was made horrifically clear in the video released Tuesday night purportedly showing the beheading of Mr Sotloff’s fellow journalist, James Foley.

Sotloff himself appears at the end of the same video, clad in a similar orange outfit to that worn by Foley and with a knife to his throat.

Addressing the US President directly, the black-robed figure beside him warns: “The life of this American citizen, Obama, depends on your next decision.” » | Rosa Prince, New York | Wednesday, August 20, 2014