September 3, 2014

President Barack Obama vowed today that the United States will not be intimidated by the latest murder of an American journalist by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Yesterday, ISIS released a video showing the killing of journalist Steven Sotloff, whom ISIS had held captive in Syria since August 2013. President Obama declared that Sotloff’s murder was a “horrific act of violence, and we cannot begin to imagine the agony everyone who loves Steven is feeling right now. Our country grieves with them.” The president went on to warn, “Our reach is long and justice will be served.” He also announced that he had ordered the deployment of another 350 troops to Baghdad to protect U.S. diplomatic facilities.

ISIS first threatened Sotloff’s life two weeks ago when it posted online a video showing the beheading of American journalist James Foley. At the time, the militants said Sotloff’s life depended on the United States ending its air offensive against ISIS forces in Iraq. The United States has launched more than 120 air strikes over the past month to support Kurdish forces, known as the Peshmerga, in their attempt to stop the ISIS advance across northern Iraq. In late June, ISIS declared that it was establishing a caliphate on the territories it controls to be known simply as “the Islamic State,” which will extend from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala province in eastern Iraq.

On September 1, the Peshmerga, joined by Iraqi soldiers and Shi`ite militia men–backed by U.S. aircraft–broke ISIS’s nearly two-month siege of the Iraqi town of Amirli. Instead of fleeing in the face of ISIS forces, the residents of Amirli, primarily Shi`ite Turkmens, had stayed and fortified their town of 15,000 with trenches and armed positions. They lived with little food and water and no electric power since the siege began. ISIS, made up of radical Sunni Muslim jihadists, regard the Shi`ite Turkmen as apostates and, therefore, unworthy to continue living.

Additional World Book articles:

• Umayyad caliphate
• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria: The Roots of a Rebellion (a special report)