Islamic State militants 'behead Kurdish man' in Iraq

Islamic State (IS) has released a video appearing to show the beheading of a Kurdish man as a warning to forces fighting the group in northern Iraq.

The video, entitled a Message in Blood, shows several men in orange jumpsuits said to be captured Kurdish fighters.

The victim is then seen kneeling near a mosque in the IS-held city of Mosul before he is beheaded.The jihadists warn that others will be killed if Kurdish leaders continue to back the US.

Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters from the autonomous Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq have been trying to counter an advance by IS, backed by US air strikes.

Earlier, IS videos from Syria appeared to show the mass killing of Syrian soldiers taken prisoner after their base was overrun.

Activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the soldiers had been captured while trying to flee to Hama province after IS stormed the Tabqa airbase.

The Sunni militant group has declared a "caliphate" across the parts of Syria and Iraq that it controls.

Last week, IS drew worldwide condemnation after releasing a video showing the beheading of US journalist James Foley. It said his death was in retaliation for US air strikes in Iraq, and the jihadist group threatened to kill other US hostages.

On Thursday, US President Barack Obama said he was sending Secretary of State John Kerry to the Middle East soon to discuss the Syria crisis with regional partners, especially those who adhere to the Sunni faith.

"I'm encouraged so far that countries in the region, countries that don't always agree on many things, increasingly recognise the primacy of the threat that Isil (IS) poses to all of them. And I've asked Secretary Kerry to travel to the region to continue to build the coalition that's needed to meet this threat," he said.

Mr Obama was speaking shortly before convening a meeting of his national security advisers on a range of Pentagon options for confronting IS.

Bakudaily.Az