Islamic State militants released a video Tuesday purporting to show the beheading of American journalist James Foley in an act of retribution for U.S. airstrikes on the group in Iraq, raising new dangers for President Obama's Middle East policy. WSJ's Tamer El-Ghobashy has the latest on the News Hub with Simon Constable. Photo: Militant Video
WASHINGTON—President Barrack Obama condemned the killing of James Foley as a barbaric act that no religion would allow after U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed the authenticity of a video showing the beheading of the American journalist.
Militants from the group Islamic State released a video on Tuesday that appeared to show the beheading of Mr. Foley in an act of retribution for U.S. airstrikes on the group in Iraq.
U.S. intelligence agencies have analyzed the video and judged it to be authentic, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council said Wednesday.
Mr. Obama said Mr. Foley's killing "shocks the conscience of the entire world." Intelevised remarks, the president denounced Islamic State militants, saying they speak for no religion and no God would stand for what they did.
American journalist James Foley wears a helmet and body armor in a photo taken while he was covering the war in Aleppo, Syria, in November 2012 . Associated Press
The graphic video raised new dangers for Mr. Obama's Middle East policy. It showed a masked militant, speaking in British-accented English, threatening to kill more Americans if the U.S. military campaign continued.
"You are no longer fighting an insurgency," the militant said in the 4½-minute video. "We are an Islamic army."
The video was posted online one day after Mr. Obama commended American and Iraqi forces for routing Islamic State fighters who had seized Iraq's largest dam.
Mr. Foley, a freelance journalist for the online news outlet GlobalPost, was one of dozens of journalists kidnapped and missing in Syria.

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The video begins with footage of Mr. Obama on Aug. 7 announcing plans for airstrikes in Iraq and shifts to aerial footage released by the Pentagon of the recent U.S. strikes on Islamic State, a Sunni militant group that has captured large parts of Iraq in fighting since June.
Mr. Foley is seen on his knees in a desert with a shaved head wearing bright orange prisoner clothing, his hands apparently bound behind his back. A man dressed in black and wearing a scarf covering most of his face is seen standing to his left, holding Mr. Foley's shoulder in one hand and a dagger in the other.
Mr. Foley, apparently reading from a statement, implores his family, especially his brother in the Air Force, to stop U.S. intervention in Iraq. Speaking in a steady voice, with the camera cutting to various angles while he talks, he says the airstrikes amounted to "the last nail in my coffin."
"I wish I had more time," he said. "I wish I could have the hope of freedom and seeing my family again. But that ship has sailed."
The militant then delivers a short speech claiming the execution of Mr. Foley was in direct response to the U.S. airstrikes on their fighters.
The video ends with footage of another man dressed in orange clothing, believed to be American freelance journalist Steven Sotloff, whom the militant group threatens to behead, depending on Mr. Obama's "next decision." Mr. Sotloff disappeared in Syria last summer.
The militant's accented English stoked new fears about the growing role of Westerners in Islamic State. American intelligence officials have warned that Islamic State fighters with Western passports could stage attacks in the U.S., the U.K. and other Western nations.
In a statement posted on the Free James Foley Facebook page, Mr. Foley's mother, Diane, said her son "gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people" and urged his killers to spare the lives of others in their captivity.
"Like Jim, they are innocents," she wrote. "They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world."
More than 30 reporters—about half of them Westerners—have disappeared in Syria and are believed to be held by extremist forces. Westerners working for aid groups also have gone missing in Syria. More than 50 journalists have been killed since Syria's civil war began in early 2011, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Mr. Foley disappeared in November 2012 while working in northern Syria. His family and friends had mounted a campaign to keep Mr. Foley's case in the public eye.
Militants have killed other Americans in retribution for U.S. policy in the Middle East.Daniel Pearl, The Wall Street Journal correspondent abducted while reporting in Pakistan, was beheaded in 2002 by his captors, who released a similar video of his killing. In 2004, U.S. contractor Nick Berg was beheaded by militants in Iraq.
The family of another American being held in Syria, Austin Tice, released a statement expressing their condolences. Mr. Tice, who worked for the Washington Post and other news outlets, disappeared in August 2012 while working in northern Syria.
A ribbon is seen on the front door of the family home of journalist James Foley Wednesday. AP
"The last 635 days, we have had to share a horrible nightmare, which has made us close to the Foley family and our heart goes out to them," Marc and Debra Tice said.
A native of Rochester, N.H., Mr. Foley graduated from Marquette University in 1996, the university said Tuesday. A history major, Mr. Foley "had a heart for social justice and used his immense talents to tell the difficult stories in the hopes that they might make a difference in the world—a measure of his character for which we could not be prouder," the statement said.
After college, he taught inner-city students through the Teach for America program in Phoenix and later instructed inmates at the Cook County Sheriff's Boot Camp in Chicago, according to a 2013 Columbia Journalism Review story about Mr. Foley.
In his mid-30s, he decided to change careers. He graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2008, according to a videotape of a speech Mr. Foley gave at Northwestern in 2011. He spoke then just two weeks after he had been released from captivity in Libya, where he had been kidnapped with other journalists.
He said the conflict-reporting courses he took in journalism school captivated him, but he was also drawn to reporting in war-torn countries in part because of his brother, who served in the military in Iraq in 2007. He recalled feeling frustrated and disconnected while watching the conflict from afar.
"That's part of the problem with these conflicts. We're not close enough to it," he said. "If we don't try to get really close to what these guys—men, women, Americans, and now, with this Arab Revolution, young Arab men, Young Egyptians and Libyans—are experiencing, you don't understand the world, essentially."