(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
Analysts in the United States are checking the authenticity of a video, released online, which purportedly shows the murder of a second US hostage, by Islamic State militants.
Images of another shocking beheading - this time, of freelance journalist identified as Steven Sotloff - came with a message from his apparent killer, aimed at the United States.
Mr Sotloff's family has released a statement saying they are grieving privately.
The 31 year old was abducted in Syria in August last year and he had been seen at the end of another video, released last month, which showed fellow journalist James Foley being murdered.
Greg Dyett reports.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
It's titled "A second message to America."
"I'm back Obama and I'm back because of your arrogant foreign policy towards the Islamic State; because of your insistence on continuing your bombings in Amerlie, and the Mosul Dam, despite our serious warnings."
Filmed in a desert, Steven Sotloff appears on his knees and dressed in orange.
"Obama, your foreign policy, of intervention in Iraq, was supposed to be for the preservation of American lives and interests. So why is it that I'm having to pay the price of your interference, with my life. Am I not an American citizen?"
Last week, after Steven Sotloff appeared in the earlier video, his mother Shirley Sotloff issued her own video statement to try to convince IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi not to kill her child.
"Since Stephen's capture I have learned a lot about Islam. I've learned that Islam teaches that no individual should be held responsible for the sins of others. Stephen has no control over the actions of the US government. He's an innocent journalist."
Now the Islamic State holds President Obama responsible for his death.
"So just as your missiles continue to strike our people, our knife will continue to strike the necks of your people.
US filmmaker Matthew Van Dyke has lost two friends in two weeks, as he knew both James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
He told the BBC, Mr Sotloff was a complete professional, who was well aware of the dangers and he fears more captives will die.
"There's going to be more hostages probably executed. There's more Americans being held as well and it's just a disaster. The administration is in a tough spot but they need to take action, you know, ISIS needs to be stopped."
Towards the end of the video another man is shown kneeling in front of the camera and dressed in orange.
He's believed to be British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines who was abducted in March last year in northern Syria.
The video ends with this warning.
"We take this opportunity to warn those governments who have entered this evil alliance of America, against the Islamic State, to back off and leave our people alone."
Here, the Deputy Opposition leader Tanya Plibersek says the video should not intimidate Australia into backing down on IS.
She says such acts lend support to Australia's backing of the Kurdish fighters taking on IS by providing them with supplies, including ammunition.
"They have been the targets of IS, because they're opposing IS, but more simply, because they do not share the ideology of Islamic State. They do not share the religion. IS will kill anyone who is of a different ethnicity, or a different religion, or indeed they will kill other sunnis, who are not prepared to go on their murderous campaign with them. So the Kurdish fighters are at risk, they have been at risk from the beginning, from what is an absolutely brutal fighting force that does not, does not recognise any of the normal rules of battle."
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