Journalist Steve Sotloff in Egypt, 2011. (Facebook/Oren Kessler)
The UN Security Council on Saturday strongly condemned the “heinous and cowardly” murder of American journalist Steven Sotloff by Islamists and declared that the Islamic State must be defeated.
Sotloff, 31, was beheaded by terrorists from the extremist jihadist group in a video released Tuesday, two weeks after the similar video of US journalist James Foley’s killing was posted online.
“The members of the Security Council stressed again that ISIL [a previous name used for the group, which stands for the Islamic State i the Levant] must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out,” said a unanimous statement from the 15-member council.
Council members added that “such continued acts of barbarism perpetraded by ISIL do not intimidate them but rather stiffen their resolve that there has to be a common effort amongst governments and institutions, including those in the region most affected, to counter ISIL, Al-Nusra Front and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with al-Qaeda.”
Slain US journalists James Foley, left, and Steven Sotloff, right. Both were executed by the Islamic State jihadist group two weeks apart in late August and September 2014.
Sotloff, who also held Israeli citizenship, worked as a freelance reporter for various publications, including Time magazine, Foreign Policy and others, when he was kidnapped April 4, 2013 in Aleppo near the Turkish border.
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US President Barack Obama outlined plans on Friday for a broad international coalition to defeat Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria.
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