LATEST: Insurgents Claim Further Success Near Key Regime Base in Idlib Province

The Islamic State apparently beheaded a second American hostage, journalist Stephen Sotloff, in Syria on Tuesday.

As in the beheading of journalist James Foley last month, the jihadists — featuring the same British-accented executioner that killed Foley — reportedly used the execution to press the Obama Administration to relent on bombing of the Islamist State in its positions in northern Iraq. Sotloff said before his death:

Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for the preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life. Am I not an American citizen?

However, unlikely the footage of the Foley execution, the video appears to have been circulated prematurely — a US monitoring firm, SITE, says it picked up the film from a filesharing site and put out the news before the Islamic State could time its publicity campaign.

The video also seems to betray the Islamic State’s concern over the US intervention, which began on August 8, and recent setbacks in Iraq.

Two weeks ago, the jihadists were pushed out of the Mosul Dam, Iraq’s largest, by Kurdish peshmerga. Earlier this week, their siege of Amerli in northern Iraq was broken after more than two months by a Kurdish-Iraqi offensive, assisted by Iranian advisors.

In both cases, the ground attacks were supported by American airstrikes.

The Islamic State has also been checked in its advance across northern Syria in the last two weeks, with insurgents making a stand in northern Aleppo Province.

Sotloff’s execution statement to Obama concluded:

Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people….

We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America against the Islamic State to back off and leave our people alone.

Sotloff, who had worked for Time magazine, went missing in August 2013.

Insurgents Claim Further Success Near Key Regime Base in Idlib Province

Insurgents are claiming more success in their pressure on the regime base at Wadi ad-Deif in Idlib Province in northwest Syria. They say they have attacked checkpoints, destroying a tank and killing “many Assad soldiers”.

The al-Zalaneh checkpoint was attacked with mortar, while fortifications were destroyed at the Ein Qurea checkpoint.