James Comey, the Director of the United States of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, said he had identified the masked Islamic State militant who was videotaped beheading Western hostages.
Comey said on Thursday night in Washington that he was not revealing the man’s name or nationality.
The masked, black clad militant, with a British accent, killed two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and a British aid worker, David Haines, in videos released by the terrorist group that controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq.
Comey said from the footage, the executioner appears to be left-handed and of average height and build.
The FBI director also said that more than 100 Americans in total had managed to reach Syria, arrested while trying to travel there or had gone and returned.
Comey indicated that terrorists in Syria might still be plotting attacks on the West and there was no sign yet that US airstrikes this week had disrupted the group’s plans.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the “strategic blunders” of the West in the Middle East had turned the region into a haven for terrorists and extremists.
Rouhani declared extremism a global issue and called for a united world response to the scourge.
Xinhua/NAN.