The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria released a video on Saturday that showed what appeared to be the beheading of a British citizen, David Cawthorne Haines, an aid worker.

He is seen kneeling on a bare hill in a landscape that appears identical to the one where two American journalists were killed by the group in back-to-back-executions in the past month, according to the footage and a transcript released by SITE Intelligence, which tracks the terrorist group.

In the moments before his death, Mr. Haines, 44, as the two slain journalists before him did, reads a script in which he blames his country’s leaders for his killing. Addressing Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, he says, “You entered voluntarily into a coalition with the United States against the Islamic State, just as your predecessor Tony Blair did, following a trend among our British prime ministers who can’t find the courage to say no to the Americans.”

The British terrorist dubbed ‘Jihadi John’ has been described as a 'dead man walking' by commentators as the UK's security services seek to track him down and bring him to justice.

But while some experts have suggested he has been identified by MI5 and MI6, his sickening appearance in this ISIS video is a reminder of how much work British agents must do before they bring his reign of terror to an end.

The best hope for eliminating him may come from the skies. Last week it was revealed the US has begun sorties using drones equipped with the latest cameras and weapons over Raqqa in northern Syria – where it is believed ISIS is holding Western hostages.

It has also been reported that President Obama would approve an immediate strike on Jihadi John if drone operators reported they had found him....

It is understood that hundreds of British Special Forces and intelligence-gathering personnel are currently working in the region in an effort to capture Jihadi John.

The operation also involves liaison with Kurdish and Iraqi soldiers. They are using an array of sophisticated equipment to track him down and free other hostages.

Jihadi John is believed to have travelled to the war-torn country from London over a year ago after becoming radicalised and raising money for the jihadists whilst in Britain....

Former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden on Sunday said he predicts there could be nearly 5,000 U.S. personnel on the ground overseas by the end of the year to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“In terms of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, logistics, advice, command and control assistance, tactical air control parties, look I’m betting we’re up close 5,000 by the end of the year,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Hayden explained he doesn’t think they will be “combat maneuver units,” but predicted U.S. special operations forces could wind up on the ground in Syria.

“I think we will at some point. It might be through covert action rather than more overt activity,” he said. “I actually think we will end up with small American special operations forces active within this broad theater in Syria and Iraq.”

The most difficult plan to execute, Hayden said, will be training and arming the Free Syrian Army, or vetted moderate opposition groups in Syria.

The U.S. would be “starting from zero” to create a “substantial” combat power, said Hayden, who served as director of the CIA under President George W. Bush and director of the National Security Agency under Bush and President Bill Clinton.

“That is a result of an American policy not to help that group over the last few years,” he said.

Hayden said the U.S. military campaign to defeat ISIS will likely last three to five years even if it is successful.

They will be fighting against [Bashar] Assad and Assad will attack them from the air, which he has done with significant success …if one of the Free Syrian Army is fighting against Assad and he is attacking them from the air, would we take action to prevent them from being attacked from Assad?

Any attack on those we have trained, we will help.

The U.S. plan to step up attacks against militants in Iraq and Syria is being delayed until more Arab governments agree to contribute to the operation, the Pentagon's top officer said Sunday.

President Obama wants to see more specific pledges from allies to join and help pay for the military operation against Islamic State militants before he will give final approval to the Pentagon's war plan, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters traveling with him in Europe.

"The president has not yet approved the campaign plan in part" because we have not yet completed our work of building the coalition, especially of Arab nations, Dempsey said. "I think that would be the point at which the campaign plan would go into its next phase."

The delay provides the latest example of the stop-and-go nature of the U.S. effort against Islamic State, which has the potential to cause friction between the White House and the nation's military leadership. Pentagon officials worry about ambivalence on Obama's part regarding involvement in another war in Iraq, despite what the president has said is the risk that Islamic State could one day threaten the United States....

American airstrikes against up to 20 ISIS targets are under way in Syria, according to Pentagon officials.

"I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL [ISIS] terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said. "Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time. The decision to conduct theses strikes was made earlier today by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief."

Several Arab nations are involved in the ongoing U.S.-led operation, a defense official said. A diplomatic source identified the nations as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Another U.S. official said the Arab nations will be dropping bombs, not just providing support. Up to 20 locations have been targeted in the operation, many of the sites in Raqqa, the official said.

In a national address on Sept. 10, President Obama said the first part of his strategy to counter ISIS was to “conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists.”

“Moreover, I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL [ISIS] in Syria as well as Iraq,” Obama said. “This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.”

...Reached by The Daily Beast after Obama’s interview aired, one former senior Pentagon official who worked closely on the threat posed by Sunni jihadists in Syria and Iraq was flabbergasted. “Either the president doesn’t read the intelligence he’s getting or he’s bullshitting,” the former official said.

Clapper did tell The Washington Post’s David Ignatius this month that he underestimated the will of the ISIS fighters in Iraq and overestimated the ability of Iraq’s security forces in northern Iraq to counter ISIS. (He also said his analysts warned about the “prowess and capability” of the group.)

Still, other senior intelligence officials have been warning about ISIS for months. In prepared testimony before the annual House and Senate intelligence committees’ threat hearings in January and February, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the recently departed director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said the group would likely make a grab for land before the end of the year. ISIS “probably will attempt to take territory in Iraq and Syria to exhibit its strength in 2014.” Of course, the prediction wasn’t exactly hard to make. By then, Flynn noted, ISIS had taken the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, and the demonstrated an “ability to concurrently maintain multiple safe havens in Syria.”

The ability of ISIS to hold that territory will depend on its “resources, local support, as well as the responses of [Iraqi security forces] and other opposition groups in Syria,” Flynn added. He noted that while many Sunnis likely opposed ISIS, “some Sunni tribes and insurgent groups appear willing to work tactically with [ISIS] as they share common anti-government goals.”

Flynn was not alone. Clapper himself in that hearing warned that the three most effective jihadist groups in Syria—one of which he said was ISIS—presented a threat as a magnet for attracting foreign fighters. John Brennan, Obama’s CIA director, said he thought both ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, al Qaeda’s formal franchise in Syria, presented a threat to launch external operations against the West.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said February 4 that because of areas of Syria that are “beyond the regime’s control or that of the moderate opposition,” a “major concern” was “the establishment of a safe haven, and the real prospect that Syria could become a launching point or way station for terrorists seeking to attack the United States or other nations.”

...The reader survey asked more than 2,200 active-duty troops this question: “In your opinion, do you think the U.S. military should send a substantial number of combat troops to Iraq to support the Iraqi security forces?” Slightly more than 70 percent responded: “No.”

“It’s their country, it’s their business. I don’t think major ‘boots on the ground’ is the right answer,” said one Army infantry officer and prior-enlisted soldier who deployed to Iraq three times. He responded to the survey and an interview request but, like several other service members in this story, asked not to be named because he is not authorized to discuss high-level military policy.

The Military Times survey was conducted online this summer and concluded in August just as President Obama was ramping up the air campaign against the Islamic State group.

As the U.S. expands that air war into Syria and increases the number of U.S. boots on the ground in Iraq — topping more than 1,700 total — service members say their feelings about the crisis and the U.S. response to it have intensified....

The Islamic State terrorist known as Jihadi John has been tracked by drones flying over the Syrian city of Raqqa – but British Special Forces chiefs fear a ‘kill or capture’ mission there would end in bloody failure, sources disclosed last night.

Reaper drones deployed high above the terrorists’ strongholds are also believed to have identified hostages wearing orange jumpsuits but top brass are thought to have currently ruled out a rescue operation because IS defences are too strong.

Special Forces bosses have advised the Ministry of Defence that a sustained bombing campaign lasting several weeks would be preferable....

‘On the basis of our current advice there is very little chance of the Prime Minister signing off a rescue bid. The prospect of success has got to be 100 per cent or thereabouts, and at the moment it is nowhere near that. And for now there are not many other options on the table.

'While sightings of Jihadi John are useful, as was establishing his identity, we are still a long way off getting a hit on him. Right now a raid would be suicidal.’ (...)