The Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has posted a video online showing the brutal beheading of an American journalist.
James Foley, a reporter working for Agence France-Presse and Boston media company GlobalPost, was taken captive while reporting in Syria November 2012. He was passing through a zone that had been a focal point of Sunni rebel forces when four terrorists stopped his car.
The death of Foley is the first American to have been killed as a result of the Syrian conflict that began in March 2011.
A British man who had joined the terrorist group who spoke in the video using English conducted the killing. The group showed video of a second captured American journalist and said they would kill him if the U.S. continued to make airstrikes against their forces in Iraq.
Foley’s family released a statement saying they were proud of him.
“He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people,” said the statement, which was attributed to Foley’s mother, Diane Foley. She implored the militants to spare the lives of other hostages. “Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world.”
The Islamic extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has committed a horrific war atrocity that was caught on video: the cutting in half of a 5-year-old Christian boy.
The boy, named Andrew, was the child of a founding member of St. George’s Anglican Church in Baghdad. He was slaughtered in an attack on the Christian town of Qaraqosh.
“I’m almost in tears because I’ve just had somebody in my room whose little child was cut in half,” Anglican Canon Andrew White of St. George’s Church told the Anglican Communion News Service Friday. “I baptized his child in my church in Baghdad. This little boy, they named him after me — he was called Andrew.”
The family had fled to Qaraqosh, which had been under the protection of Kurdish fighters. However, the Islamic State overran the Kurdish fighters and slaughtered as many Christians as they could capture as the believers fled the city.
The dead boy’s parents and brother were able to make it to the city of Arbil, which President Obama said would be under the protection of the U.S. military because of the U.S. consulate being located in the town.
The Christian Post reports that Iraqi church leaders have asked for the world to pray for them and to send money so they can purchase supplies, food and clothing for the tens of thousands of Christians fleeing the terrorists.
The Islamic extremist group Boko Haram has killed as many Christians in Nigeria since the start of the 2014 than they did during the entire year of 2013.
The Jubilee Campaign reports that the total number of Christians killed are in proportion to a rising number of overall deaths caused by the Islamic extremist group. The death toll of close to 4,100 is already higher than all the total deaths of last year.
The increase in the death toll is reportedly due to an increase in weapon capability and training because of connections to other al-Qaeda related terror cells in Africa including al-Shabaab in Somalia and the terror groups in Mali fighting French troops for control of the northern regions.
“The pattern therefore is that if you do not do what they demand, even if you are Muslim, you become an ‘apostate’ deserving of death,” Emmanuel Ogebe of Jubilee Campaign said. “Therefore the difference between Boko Haram’s approach to Christian ‘infidels’ and Muslim apostates is you are killed as a Christian ‘just because’ your name is Christian – you go to church, etc. – whereas Muslims are generally killed ‘for cause,’ for example working for the government or refusing to pay extortion taxes to Boko Haram.”
Human Rights Watch reported over 2,000 deaths during the same time period but acknowledged they only covered a part of the country and that their information is likely a very conservative estimate.
An Islamic extremist who attacked a Jewish museum in Brussels, Belgium has been charged with “murder in a terrorist context” by Belgian authorities.
29-year-old Medhi Nemmouche was arrested in France on May 30th and extradited to Belgium to stand trial. He had fought the extradition claiming that because two of the victims of the shooting were Israeli, Belgium would give him to the Israeli authorities rather than trying him.
Nemmouche entered a Jewish museum on May 24th with an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun. He killed two Israeli tourists and two museum staffers while wounding multiple others. He then fled before police could arrive on the scene.
The gunman had tried to film the attack but the camera malfunctioned during the assault. However, a voice on the video prior to the malfunction was definitively tied to Nemmouche.
Nemmouche had flown to Syria in 2012 to fight with Islamic extremists against the Syrian government before returning to Europe.
Three New Mexico teenagers are in custody after they reportedly beat two homeless men to death and then went to one of the teen’s homes to hang out. Alex Rios, 18, and two boys aged 16 and 15 are being held on $5 million bail.
A third homeless man who survived the beating and was able to crawl to a nearby home for help identified the boys. He told police that one of the boys lived near the location of the attack.
Police found the boys hanging out at the home described by the victim. One of the boys hadn’t even bothered to clean the blood from the victims off his clothing.
Investigators say the two dead men were beaten so badly they’re having trouble making any kind of identification. An Arizona driver’s license was found at the site but there was no way to use it to make a facial comparison.
The criminal complaint says the 15-year-old was “very angry” over a breakup with a girlfriend so they went looking for someone to beat and rob.
“I personally, after reading that complaint, was sick to my stomach because of the nature of the violence and the age of the offenders,” police spokesman Simon Drobik said.
A new report from Human Rights Watch says that Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram has killed over 2,000 people so far in 2014.
HRW has outlined the attacks by the Islamic extremist group since January and noted their report is based on analysis of media reports as well as field reports from their own investigators sent into Nigeria.
“Boko Haram is effectively waging war on the people of northeastern Nigeria at a staggering human cost,” Corinne Dufka, West Africa director at Human Rights Watch, told the Christian Post. “Atrocities committed as part of a widespread attack on civilians are crimes against humanity, for which those responsible need to be held to account.”
The report said the greatest number of murders, 1,446 people, happened in Borno State, where the terrorist group was founded.
The terrorists are still holding over 200 girls that were kidnapped from a school in Chibok in April demanding the release of terrorists and other demands.
A makeshift tribute to a man who waited in ambush at a Walgreens in Jersey City, New Jersey to kill police officers is being called “tasteless” by Jersey City officials.
Lawrence Campbell, 27, walked into a Walgreens store and took the gun from a security guard. He told people in the store to leave and watch television because he was “going to be famous.” He then ambushed and killed a rookie officer before being shot by other police.
Now, neighborhood residents have set up a shrine to the cop killer outside the store, with messages like “see U on the other side” and “Thug in peace.”
Even the widow of the killer is showing little remorse for the incident, telling News 12 New Jersey that while she was sorry for the family of the slain officer, if her husband was going to be killed he should have killed more police officers before he died.
Jersey City officials condemned the display and tried to say it’s not representative of the neighborhood.
“I firmly believe that the people who made the ignorant comments on the TV and the people who put up a memorial to a cowardly murderer who shot somebody in the head without giving him a chance are not representative of the people who live up there,” Police Director James Shea said.
Officer Melvin Santiago, 23, graduated the police academy in December. He will be laid to rest on Friday.
Israeli military officials reported carrying out over 100 airstrikes in the last 24 hours at Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip.
The new offensive is part of a potential offensive into the Gaza Strip. Israel has called up over 40,000 troops to the border along the Gaza Strip as military officials continue to meet with senior Israeli ministers.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the Israeli leadership has had enough of dealing with terrorists.
“We have repeatedly warned Hamas that this must stop and Israel’s defense forces are currently acting to put an end of this once and for all,” spokesman Mark Regev told Fox News.
The movements and air strikes, called “Operation Protective Edge”, reportedly plans to continue air strikes at Hamas positions over the next several weeks.
Hamas has fired nearly 300 rockets into Israel over the last few weeks including 100 on Monday. The attacks come amid increased tensions after the terrorist group kidnapped and murdered three Israeli teenagers.
A man who identified himself as “Satan’s Son” will be spending the rest of his life behind bars.
A Dallas judge sentenced Randy Torres, 23, to life in prison without parole for the killing of 55-year-old Cathy Wilder in June 2010. Torres stabbed the woman repeatedly after he invited her to his mobile home.
Torres lured the victim by saying he wanted to have a Bible study, prayer and to learn more about Jesus. The body was found with a note on it that was signed “Satan’s Son.”
Wilder’s family said that she was a committed Christian who was dedicated to helping others come to Christ. Her husband had warned her not to go visit the young man the day of her death but she said that she had to “help people with God wherever I can.”
Torres went to a bar after the killing and then called police to turn himself in. He said that he stabbed the woman in the back so hard it broke the knife’s handle and he had to get another knife. He said he enjoyed the killing and would have kept on killing other people.
Dallas police officer Sean Moses said in testimony the killing was one of the goriest he’d ever seen in his career.
A mentally ill 22-year-old California man killed six people and wounded seven others before killing himself in a premeditated murder rampage in Isla Vista, California.
Elliot Rodger posted a video online the day before his assault where he prepared to bring “retribution” on those who he believed had done him wrong, singling out college age women he said rejected him in favor of men he thought were crude and beneath him.
Rodger posted a 140-page manifesto online that he e-mailed to friends and family who were frantically searching for him the evening of his attack.
Rodger stabbed his three roommates to death before getting in a black BMW to start his rampage. He committed suicide when police closed in on him after a short chase.
Police say most of the deaths happened outside a convenience store where the bystanders didn’t realize initially what was happening and took some time to obtain cover. Witnesses say the gunman rapidly sped away after the shooting, running over two bicyclists in his way.
Police had been dispatched to Rodger’s house a month prior to the attack after reports of disturbing videos that he had placed online. Police visited with him and reported that they did not find any threatening signs.
