WASHINGTON: Militants belonging to the Islamic State (IS), formerly known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, have released a video showing the beheading of an American journalist kidnapped in Syria, in the most direct retaliation yet to US air strikes against them in Iraq.

The video, in which the IS group also threatened to kill another reporter if US air strikes in Iraq continued, sparked global outrage on Wednesday.

Posted online late on Tuesday, it showed a masked militant beheading a man resembling James Foley, who has been missing since he was seized in Syria in November 2012.

News of Mr Foley’s apparent beheading comes as US air strikes appeared to yield some results, helping Kurdish and federal forces push IS fighters back from some recently-conquered areas in northern Iraq, including the strategic Mosul dam.

“We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people,” Mr Foley’s mother Diane said in a Facebook message to supporters.

“We implore the kidnappers to spare the lives of the remaining hostages."

“Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.”

Anwar Iqbal adds: US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that the beheading couldn’t force the United States to change policies in Iraq, where it has been conducting air strikes against militants.

“The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people,” Mr Obama said in a brief statement issued by his office. “We will be vigilant and we will be relentless.”

The president also indicated that the killing had further strengthened America’s determination to eradicate militants of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, who decapitated the journalist, Jim Foley.

“When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done. And we act against ISIS, standing alongside others,” Mr Obama said.

President Obama described Mr Foley as a “journalist, a son, a brother and a friend who was taken from us in an act of violence that shocked the conscience of the entire world”.

The entire world was appalled by this brutal act, he said.

“No just God would stand for what they did yesterday or every single day,” he added. “People like this ultimately fail. They fail because the future’s won by those who build and not destroy. The world is shaped by people like Jim Foley.”

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2014