James Foley death: Could this be location of journalist's murder?

[SoleSurvivor]

James Foley death: Could this be location of journalist's murder?

Date
August 25, 2014 - 2:42PM
Josie Ensor

A British expert on images of Syria believes he may have identified the precise location where James Foley, the kidnapped American journalist, was beheaded by an Islamic State fighter.

Eliot Higgins, a Leicester-based video and photo analyst who specialises in Syria, has methodically analysed the five-minute video of the beheading of the 40-year-old reporter in an attempt to pinpoint where it happened.

He has concluded that Foley was most likely killed in a spot in the hills south of the Syrian city of Raqqa, whose precise co-ordinates he has calculated.

Blacking out image of the video allowed Higgins to analyse the landscape. Photo: Higgins/Bellingcat

If correct, his finding could provide a crucial clue in the search for the hooded jihadi with a British accent who appeared to be the murderer in the video.

Locating the site of the murder would make it easier to link jihadists known to be operating in the area with his death, by comparing it with other US and British intelligence data. The images were published on the citizens' journalism site Bellingcat.

To work out the location, Mr Higgins first blacked out the figures in the footage to analyse the landscape behind them.

UK investigative journalist Eliot Higgins believes this may be the spot where US reporter James Foley. Photo: Eliot Higgins//bellingcat.com

It is a hilly, featureless terrain, but in the distance it is possible to make out a green plain. Mr Higgins compared this with a satellite image of Raqqa in northern Syria - the Islamic State fighters' "capital" - where the city can be seen surrounded by green plains.

Having analysed all areas under Isil control, he found no other locations that fitted the geography.

Mr Higgins, who uses the pseudonym Brown Moses online, then looked at the position of the shadows, which he says suggests the video was filmed during the morning, the camera pointing northwards.

This may be the raised area where where Foley was executed. Photo: Elliot Higgins/Bellingcat

This led him to examine the hills to the south of Raqqa, and he noted an area of raised ground. He then noted the visible edge of a track that leads to a break in the rocks - both key features.

Focusing on the tracks, he compared the landscape with satellite images of the hills. He identified a spot where a track appeared to enter the area, and on the satellite map identified a rock outcrop that would partly obscure the entry point, as one does in the video.

He compared the configurations of trees in the video with the satellite image and pinpointed the likeliest location of Foley's murder - an isolated spot with the co-ordinates 35.88219, 39.03617.

This may be the spot where US reporter James Foley was murdered. Photo: Eliot Higgins/Bellingcat

Telegraph, London