Race to save Briton from beheading by IS captors

London Evening Standard/London

A desperate race was under way yesterday to save the British hostage threatened with beheading by Islamic State, as ministers vowed “every possible option” was on the table, including military action.

The prime minister said he would not cave in to any ultimatum by the man’s murderous captors.

“A country like ours will not be cowed by barbaric killers,” said David Cameron after chairing an emergency meeting of the Cobra crisis-handling committee. “We have faced down threats like this before and we will do again.”

The British man, who was captured while working for aid organisations in the Middle East, was identified on Monday night in the horrific video of American hostage Steven Sotloff being decapitated with a knife. The Evening Standard is not naming him at present, at the request of his family.

The government said the video appeared to feature the same masked fanatic with a British accent, known as Jihadi John, who killed US journalist James Foley two weeks ago.

Yesterday Barack Obama vowed the murderers would face US retribution. Speaking in Estonia, the president said: “Those who make the mistake of harming Americans will learn we will not forget, our reach is long, and justice will be served.” Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond emerged from the 8.15am Cobra talks, which lasted an hour, with a message that nothing was being ruled out to rescue the British man, that nothing was being ruled out to rescue the British man, if he was still alive. “You’re aware, of course, of the rescue attempt that took place some time ago — unfortunately unsuccessfully,” he said, referring to a military raid by US forces on a site in Syria that was revealed last month.

“You wouldn’t expect me to discuss the various options that we will be considering, but I can assure that we will look at every possible option to protect this person.” However, he echoed Cameron by insisting the hostage situation would not alter the government’s approach to dealing with Islamic State (IS) extremists.

“It can’t allow us to change our overall strategy. We’ve been aware of this hostage, of course, for some time, but we have to deal with IS on the basis of the wider threat that they pose to the British public, as well as to this individual.”

He kept the door open to air strikes against IS forces in Iraq. “If we judge that air strikes could be beneficial ... we will certainly consider them, but we’ve made no decision to do so at the moment,” he said.

Hammond confirmed that British analysts think the video of Sotloff’s murder is real. “Our preliminary analysis is that this video is genuine, that it is Sotloff, and that it appears to be the same person with an apparently British voice that appeared in the last video,” he said.

There is speculation that the militants are determined to kill a Briton and may even have taken the hostage’s life before the ultimatum video emerged.

US terror expert Peter Neumann said: “Tragically, it probably is likely that they will execute a British person at some point in the future unless something dramatic happens.”

Muslim leaders in Britain appealed to IS not to execute any more prisoners. “Every loss of innocent life is a crime against humanity,” said Sir Iqbal Sacranie, a former secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. “This has to be stopped.”

Sotloff, 31, was a freelancer for Time magazine when seized in August 2013. He was shown in the video wearing a Guantanamo Bay-style orange jumpsuit against a desert backdrop. He is forced to read a purported message to Obama: “I am paying the price of your interference with my life ...” The masked captor says: “I am back, Obama, and I am back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State, because of your insistence on continuing your bombings .. despite our serious warnings. Just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.”

A spokesman for Sotloff’s family said: “The family knows of this horrific tragedy and is grieving privately.” Hammond said: “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Sotloff. We are doing everything we can to reassure the family of the British hostage who was shown in the video.”