Video purportedly shows ISIS beheading American journalist

A video posted to YouTube by the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria purportedly shows the beheading of James Foley, an American journalist, multiple media outlets reported on Tuesday. Foley has been missing since November 2012, when he was believed to have been abducted in Syria.

The murder was apparently a warning to the U.S. to cease its operations against ISIS, which have succeeded in delivering a string of setbacks to the group after it made huge territorial gains in Iraq in the last few months.

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.