Tributes Galore For True Hero: Mother Of Slaughtered American Journalist Calls For Cease Fire

A shocking video has emerged showing an ISIS militant who speaks with a British accent brutally executing an American photojournalist who was kidnapped in Syria two years ago. Graphic footage of the execution appeared in an video titled: 'A Message to the U.S.', in which an apparently coerced James Wright
Foley, 40, describes America as his true killers for using airstrikes to assist Kurdish forces in recapturing the Mosul Dam from ISIS militants. Foley - who went missing in 2012 while working for the Global Post news agency in Syria - is then beheaded with a small knife over a period of seven minutes by a masked man dressed all in black.
The executioner, who speaks directly to the camera in what appears to be a London accent, then warns that a second captured American journalist will be killed if the U.S. doesn't halt the airstrikes. Speaking after the video emerged, Foley's mother Diane issued a statement saying that she and her husband John have 'never been prouder' of their son, who they say gave his life to expose the suffering of the Syrian people.

In a statement posted on the Free James Foley Facebook page last night, Diane Foley wrote that she and husband John 'have never been prouder of our son Jim'. Mrs Foley wrote that her son spent his life fighting to expose the suffering of the Syrian people, and pleaded with ISIS to release remaining hostages.

Foley was one of 20 journalists currently missing in Syria, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Many of them are thought likely to have passed into ISIS' hands either because the kidnappers have subsequently sworn allegiance to group's self-declared caliphate, or because they were sold on.
'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,' Mrs Foley's statement read. 'We thank Jim for all the joy he gave us. He was an extraordinary son, brother, journalist and person,' she added.
President Barack Obama was briefed on the video as he was flying back to the White House on Air Force One From his Martha's Vineyard vacation. White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden says the administration has seen the video.

British foreign secretary Phillip Hammond today said the footage 'appears to be genuine', which would make it the first time ISIS has killed an American since the conflict broke out in Syria in 2011.