The terrorist Islamic State group released a video on Friday purporting to show its gunmen decapitating what they said was a Kurdish fighter captured in northern Iraq.
The video showed masked gunmen with alleged Kurdish captives wearing orange outfits. In an ensuing clip, the victim appeared kneeling before he was beheaded near a mosque said to be located in the militant-held northern city of Mosul.
In the video, titled “A Message in Blood,” the insurgents threatened Kurdish leaders with more such beheadings if they do not stop backing the United States in its drive against the radical group.
The authenticity of the video could not be verified.
Last week, the Islamic State, using the same execution style, killed US journalist James Foley, who went missing in neighbouring Syria in 2012.
The al-Qaeda splinter group also threatened to kill another American journalist in its captivity unless President Barack Obama ends airstrikes that started in Iraq earlier this month.
The Islamic State has seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria where its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared in late June the establishment of a caliphate.
On Thursday, Obama said he had not yet devised a strategy for going after the Islamic State militants inside Syria and remained focused on protecting US interests in Iraq.
His remarks dampened expectations -- fueled by media leaks from US officials - that airstrikes against Islamic State targets inside Syria could be imminent.
Obama stressed that defeating the group will require a regional response to the threat, which he said cannot be solved through US military involvement alone.
US Secretary of State John Kerry would soon travel to the region amid efforts to build a international coalition against the group.
The Kurdish Peshmerga forces, backed by US airstrikes, have in recent weeks, recaptured several areas including the strategic Mosul Dam, from the Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq.