Cousin kills air force official in road rage incident
A cousin of Syria’s president shoots dead a senior air force officer in a road rage incident according to a monitoring group. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the incident happened when the cousin followed the officer because he overtook him at a crossroads, then swerved the car around, got out and shot him dead. The cousin has not been arrested.
Steven Sotloff beheaded
A video appears to show the killing by ISIS of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff. The man identified as Sotloff addresses the camera:
I’m sure you know exactly who I am by now and why I am appearing. Obama, your foreign policy of intervention in Iraq was supposed to be for preservation of American lives and interests, so why is it that I am paying the price of your interference with my life?
A militant warns the U.S.:
Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.
The militant then appears to kill Sotloff by beheading him.
Sotloff was last seen alive at the end of a similar video which showed the execution by beheading of American journalist James Foley. He told Obama that his life was in the President’s hands. The most recent video ends with an apparent threat against the life of a man identified as David Cawthorne Haines, a British citizen.
American ISIS fighter killed
American national Douglas McArthur McCain is killed fighting for ISIS against the al-Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s Syrian wing, in the suburbs of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. He is believed to be the first U.S. citizen killed while fighting for the group, also known as Islamic State.
Senior militant killed
A senior Iraqi intelligence official says senior ISIS leader Haji Bakr has been assassinated in a killing related to the dispute between ISIS and other opposition groups. Haji Bakr’s real name was Sameer Abid Mohammed Al-Halefawi, and he is reported to have served as an air-defense officer in Saddam Hussein’s army before joining Al Qaeda in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.