Officials near ID on Foley’s killer

Intelligence officials are close to determining the identity of the Islamic State militant with a British accent who killed American journalist James Foley, the British ambassador to the United States said Sunday.

“We’re not in a position to say exactly who this is,” Ambassador Peter Westmacott said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think we are close.”

Experts in voice recognition are working to figure out the name of the Islamic State executioner who beheaded Foley and threatened to kill another American journalist, apparently in retribution for a U.S. bombing campaign against the group’s forces in Iraq. A video of the killing was posted online last week.

The Obama administration has not eased up in its strikes against the Islamic State in the days since the group claimed responsibility for killing Foley, but rather has begun to look at the possibility of expanding its attacks on the militants to their bases of operation in Syria.

Los Angeles Times