(VOVworld) - The White House on Wednesday confirmed the authenticity of an internet video that shows the beheading of American reporter Steven Sotloff by the self-declared Islamic State.

The internet video that shows the beheading of American reporter Steven Sotloff by the self-declared Islamic State is authentic

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the US Intelligence Community has analyzed the video and reached the judgment that it is authentic. In the video, Sotloff is wearing an orange jumpsuit and kneeling beside a gunman wearing a black face mask against a desert landscape backdrop. The gunman criticizes US attacks targeting the IS, then beheads the US reporter and threatens to execute a British hostage. Sotloff was a 31-year-old Miami-area native who freelanced for Time and Foreign Policy magazine. He vanished in Syria in August, 2013

Speaking ahead of a NATO summit in Wales, US President Barack Obama called the IS a threat not only to Iraq but also to the whole region, and stressed the need for a global alliance to confront the extremist group. UK Prime Minister David Cameron chaired an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the IS’s impact on the UK and possible countermeasures. He called Sotloff’s murder “despicable and barbaric”, and said that the IS might be a threat to the US and the UK.