El Shafee Elsheikh, a former British citizen accused of taking part in a brutal ISIS hostage-taking scheme, has been convicted in a federal court in Virginia of assisting in the kidnapping and deaths of four Americans between 2012 and 2015.
When Steven Sotloff's friends discovered he was being held captive by ISIS militants, they set out to hide any reference to the fact that he was Jewish and a dual American-Israeli citizen — and succeeded.
Turkey, NATO's southern flank, shares a border with ISIS extremists. For years, that border has been easy to cross, allowing foreign fighters to stream into Syria. Now, with ISIS on the rampage, Turkey is trying to shut down the border, but it may be too late.
Steven Sotloff, an American reporter held for more than a year after his capture in Syria, appeared to be the victim of an execution by the Islamist militant group ISIS. After being shown in the recording of journalist James Foley's killing, Sotloff's murder was also filmed and distributed on the Internet.
A video has been released purportedly showing the beheading of US journalist, Steven Sotloff, at the hands of militants from the terrorist organization that refers to itself as the Islamic State. Janine di Giovanni, Middle East editor at Newsweek, a friend and colleague of Sotloff's, remembers him from better times.
With the death of James Foley and the continued captivity of Steven Sotloff, even seasoned war correspondents think that groups like ISIS may have made Syria too dangerous for foreign correspondents to cover the civil war there.
If you're being held hostage by terrorists overseas and you're French or Spanish, there's a good chance your government will find a way to free you — by paying a ransom through indirect means. If you're American or British, your best bet is to try and escape — or hope for a daring military raid.
James Foley's kidnapping and murder is a sad trend in the war in Syria, but it's paying off for terrorist groups. They've collected millions of dollars in ransoms, and journalist David Rohde, who spent seven months in Taliban captivity, says current kidnapping policies aren't keeping journalists safe.