Syrian strikes on Islamic State stronghold kill 25

Syria launched a series of airstrikes targeting a stronghold of the Islamic State extremist group on Saturday, killing at least 25 people, most of whom died when one of the missiles slammed into a crowded bakery, activists said.

The eight airstrikes smashed parts of buildings, set cars alight and crushed people under rubble in the northeastern city of Raqqa, which is ruled by the extremist group, according to video of the aftermath uploaded to social media networks.

At least 16 civilians were killed, alongside nine Islamic State fighters, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of the civilians were killed after at least one strike hit a bakery on a busy street, and the death toll was likely to rise, said the Observatory, which obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground.

The airstrikes were also reported by a Moscow-based activist who uses the name Abu Ibrahim and is a member of a media collective called "Raqqa is being silently slaughtered." Another group, the Raqqa Media Center, uploaded video of the aftermath which appeared to be genuine and was consistent with AP reporting of the event.

Activist Abu Ibrahim said the local morgue was packed with charred bodies, making identification difficult. He said the dead included at least eight members of one family.

Other strikes hit a government finance building that the Islamic State used as its headquarters and another building used as a jail, Abu Ibrahim said.

It has been virtually impossible for journalists to visit Raqqa, a city of some 500,000 people on the banks of the Euphrates river, since the town fell to the Islamic State group earlier this year. The group routinely abducts reporters and recently beheaded two American journalists in response to U.S. airstrikes against the militants in Iraq.

The Syrian government strikes were part of an uptick of military action against the Islamic State group since it swept into neighboring Iraq, seizing northern and western swaths of that country and declaring a proto-state straddling the border.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's government has also suffered heavy losses against the Islamic State group, which killed hundreds of soldiers and pro-government fighters in recent months as it overran oil fields and military bases. There was no immediate government comment on the airstrikes.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States will not be intimidated by Islamic State militants

President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States will not be intimidated by Islamic State militants after the beheading of a second American journalist and will build a coalition to "degrade and destroy" the group.

Obama still did not give a timeline for deciding on a strategy to go after the extremist group's operations in Syria. "It'll take time to roll them back," the president said at a news conference during a visit to Europe.

Obama's comments came after he said the United States had verified the authenticity of a video released Tuesday showing the beheading of freelance reporter Steven Sotloff, two weeks after journalist James Foley was similarly killed.

Obama vowed the U.S. would not forget the "terrible crime against these two fine young men."

"Our reach is long and justice will be served," Obama said.

In the Sotloffvideo, a masked militant warns Obama that as long as U.S. airstrikes against the militant group continue, "our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people."

Obama responded that he will continue to fight the militant threat and the "barbaric and ultimately empty vision" it represents.

"Our objective is to make sure that Isis is not an ongoing threat to the region," he said, using an acronym for the militant group. "And we can accomplish that. It's going to take some time and it's going to take some effort."

Sotloff, a 31-year-old Miami-area native who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazines, vanished a year ago in Syria and was not seen again until he appeared in the video that showed Foley's beheading. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit against an arid Syrian landscape, Sotloff was threatened in that video with death unless the U.S. stopped airstrikes on the Islamic State.

In the video distributed Tuesday and titled "A Second Message to America," Sotloff appears in a similar jumpsuit before he is apparently beheaded by a fighter with the Islamic State, the extremist group that has conquered wide swaths of territory across Syria Iraq and declared itself a caliphate.

British Foreign Secretary Phillip Harmmon told the BBC Wednesday that the masked, British-accented jihadist appears to be the same person shown in the Foley footage.

In the video, the organization threatens to kill another hostage, this one identified as a British citizen.

Last week, Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff, pleaded with his captors for mercy, saying in a video that her son was "an innocent journalist" and "an honorable man" who "has always tried to help the weak."

Obama said the prayers of the American people are with the family of the "devoted and courageous journalist" who deeply loved the Islamic world and whose "life stood in stark contrast to those who murdered him so brutally."

"Whatever these murderers think they will achieve by murdering innocents like Steven, they have already failed," Obama said. "We will not be intimidated. Their horrific acts only unite us."

State Department  Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday that it is believed that "a few" Americans are still being held by the Islamic State. Psaki would not give any specifics, but one is a 26-year-old woman who was kidnapped while doing humanitarian aid work in Syria, according to a family representative who asked that the hostage not be identified out of fear for her safety.

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US says American held in Syria has been freed

An American journalist kidnapped and held hostage for nearly two years by an al-Qaida-linked group in Syria was released Sunday, less than a week after the horrific execution of American journalist James Foley by Islamic militants.

The freed American is 45-year-old Peter Theo Curtis of Massachusetts, who wrote under the byline Theo Padnos.

White House national security adviser Susan Rice said Curtis is now safe outside of Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry said Curtis was held by Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-linked militant group fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A senior administration official said Curtis was released in the Golan Heights, where he was met by U.S. government personnel who were transporting him to Tel Aviv. The official was not authorized to speak by name and discussed the release on the condition of anonymity.

It was not known what prompted Curtis' release or if any of the captors' demands had been met.

In a video obtained by The Associated Press and dated July 18, 2014, Curtis sits cross-legged on a floor with his hands bound, and appears to read from a sheet placed in front of him on the floor. Addressing the U.S. and European governments, he pleads for them to contact a named intermediary before it is too late.

"They have given me three days to live," he says as a man holding an assault rifle and dressed in camouflage stands next to him. "If you don't do anything, I'm finished. I'm dead. They will kill me. Three days. You have had 20 days, and you've done nothing. "

He does not specify any demands, only urges Western governments to make contact with the intermediary.

His family said they believe Curtis was captured in October 2012, shortly after crossing into Syria.

"My heart is full at the extraordinary, dedicated, incredible people, too many to name individually, who have become my friends and have tirelessly helped us over these many months," Curtis' mother, Nancy Curtis, said in a statement from the family. "Please know that we will be eternally grateful."

Curtis, under the Theo Padnos byline, has written for the New Republic and in 2011 wrote a book called "Undercover Muslim: A Journey Into Yemen," which studied the radicalization of disaffected youths.

Before leaving for Yemen in 2005 to study Islam, he worked in the Vermont prison system teaching teenage inmates. That experience resulted in the book "My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun."

"He seems to be in good health," Curtis' cousin Viva Hardigg said in an interview. "We are deeply relieved and grateful for his return and the many people who have helped up secure his freedom. At the same time, we are thinking constantly of the other hostages who are still held and those working to help them be freed. We want to do everything we can to support their efforts."

In another video from June 30, 2014, a man with a beard and disheveled hair identifies himself as Peter Theo Curtis from Boston, and says he is being treated well.

"I have everything I need. Everything has been perfect — food, clothing, even friends now," he says. He appears to be reading from a script.

Curtis' release was first reported by Al Jazeera.

Kerry, a former senator from Massachusetts, voiced relief and gratitude for Curtis' release, "particularly after a week marked by unspeakable tragedy."

"Theo's mother, whom we've known from Massachusetts and with whom we've worked during this horrific period, simply refused to give up and has worked indefatigably to keep hope alive that this day could be a reality," Kerry said.

He added that over the past two years, Washington had "reached out to more than two dozen countries asking for urgent help from anyone who might have tools, influence or leverage to help secure Theo's release and the release of any Americans held hostage in Syria."

Foley was beheaded by Islamic State militants who released a video last week blaming his death on U.S. airstrikes against their fighters in Iraq. Foley's captors had demanded $132.5 million (100 million euros) from his parents and political concessions from Washington. Neither obliged, authorities say.

Officials said Curtis' captors were members of the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida affiliate. Islamic State is an al-Qaida splinter group and the two organizations have parted ways. U.S. officials say Islamic State is the far more ruthless organization.

For al-Qaida and some other militant bands, ransoms paid to free kidnapped Europeans over the past decade have surpassed donations from private supporters as a source of funding, according to the United States and Britain.

The British government, like the U.S., adheres to a longstanding policy against paying ransoms to extremists. A senior Obama administration official said last week the Islamic State had made a "range of requests" from the U.S. for Foley's release, including changes in American policy and posture in the Mideast.

Al Jazeera reported that mediators from Qatar helped secure Curtis' release. The energy-rich Gulf nation, which is a leading supporter of the Syrian rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad, has been involved in mediating hostage releases in Syria over the past year.

In March, the Qataris helped negotiate the release of more than a dozen Greek Orthodox nuns held by the Nusra Front. Late last year, Qatar also helped broker a deal that saw nine Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria by rebels go free in exchange for the release of two Turkish pilots held hostage in Lebanon.

US mission to rescue hostages in Syria failed

President Barack Obama sent special operations troops to Syria this summer on a secret mission to rescue American hostages, including journalist James Foley, held by Islamic State extremists, but they did not find them, the Obama administration said Wednesday

Officials said the rescue mission was authorized after intelligence agencies believed they had identified the location inside Syria where the hostages were being held. But the several dozen special operations forces dropped by aircraft into Syria did not find them at that location and engaged in a firefight with Islamic State militants before departing.

"The U.S. government had what we believed was sufficient intelligence, and when the opportunity presented itself, the president authorized the Department of Defense to move aggressively to recover our citizens," said Lisa Monaco, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, in a statement. "Unfortunately, that mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not present."

Officials disclosed the rescue operation a day after the militants released a video showing the beheading of Foley and threatened to kill a second hostage, Steven Sotloff, if U.S. airstrikes against the militants in Iraq continued.

Despite the militants' threats, the U.S. launched a new barrage of airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria Wednesday. The Obama administration did not rule out the prospect of a military operation in Syria to bring those responsible for Foley's death to justice.

The disclosure of the rescue mission marks the first time the U.S. has revealed that American military personnel have been on the ground in Syria since a bloody civil war there broke out more than three years ago. Obama has resisted calls to insert the U.S. military in the middle of Syria's war, a cautious approach his critics say has allowed the Islamic State to strengthen there and make gains across the border in Iraq.

A number of militants but no Americans were killed in the firefight in Syria. One American sustained a minor injury when an aircraft was hit, officials said.

"As we have said repeatedly, the United States government is committed to the safety and well-being of its citizens, particularly those suffering in captivity. In this case, we put the best of the United States military in harms' way to try and bring our citizens home," Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said in a statement Wednesday night. "The United States government uses the full breadth of our military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring people home whenever we can. The United States will not tolerate the abduction of our people, and will work tirelessly to secure the safety of our citizens and to hold their captors accountable."

Administration officials would not say specifically when or where the operation took place, citing the need to protect operational details in order to preserve the ability to carry out future rescue missions. They did say that nearly every branch of the military was involved and that the special forces on the ground were supported from the air by fixed wing, rotary and surveillance aircraft.

Islamic State says beheads U.S. journalist

Islamic State insurgents released a video on Tuesday purportedly showing the beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley, who had gone missing in Syria nearly two years ago.

The video, titled "A Message To America," was posted on social media sites. It was not immediately possible to verify its authenticity.

Foley, who has reported in the Middle East for five years, was kidnapped on Nov. 22, 2012, by unidentified gunmen.

A Twitter account set up by his family to help find him said early on Wednesday: "We know that many of you are looking for confirmation or answers. Please be patient until we all have more information, and keep the Foleys in your thoughts and prayers."

Islamic State's sweep through northern Iraq, bringing it close to Baghdad and in control of the second city, Mosul, drew U.S. air strikes on the country for the first time since the end of the American occupation in 2011.

The Sunni militant group has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria in areas it controls.