BREAKING: ISIS Beheads American Journalist James Wright Foley

Katie Pavlich | August 19, 2014 5:30 PM

The terrorist group ISIS has allegedly beheaded American journalist James Wright Foley on video in Iraq in order to send a message to the United States. I'm not going to dignify the terrorists by posting the video here, you can look it up on your own if you'd like. A warning, extremely violent and difficult to watch.

Do not watch the video. Honor James Foley's memory. He was a good damn reporter. The world is less good without him.
— Jeb Boone (@JebBoone) August 19, 2014

Wright's fellow journalist Ihan Tanir gave some background on the situation on Twitter.

I was w/ James Foley in Aleppo, August 2012 for a day in #Selahaddin. Syrian opposition members were adoring him. He was a kind, brave man
— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) August 19, 2014

James Foley and another freelancer were the last foreign journos left in near Aleppo city as Assad regime were taking over, August 2012. ++
— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) August 19, 2014

When I was looking for cover from Syrian regime’s jets, he was running w his camera to capture jets' diving. Brave #jamesfoley #RIP
— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) August 19, 2014

They were last 2 foreign journos left. Rebels w/me went there to rescue these 2, then ventured to Selahaddin neighborhood, Aleppo that day
— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) August 19, 2014

More from Noah Rothman:

The American photojournalist James Wright Foley was working for Agence France Presse when he was captured crossing the Syria-Turkish border in 2012. The American war reporter had previously been held for six weeks by pro-Gaddafi forces in Libya while covering that conflict. Some believed that his capture would be similarly short-lived. Tragically, that would not be the case.

“On November 22, 2012, James Wright Foley, a freelance photo journalist, was taken by an organized gang after departing from an internet café in Binesh, Syria,” the FBI noted in November, 2012. “Foley had employed a translator to help him travel across the Syrian-Turkish border. The translator was also taken, but later released.”