Cameron summons Cobra talks

The prime minister has summoned members of the British government's emergency response committee, known as Cobra, to meet this Sunday to discuss their options, just hours after a video was posted on the Internet, appearing to show the beheading of British aid worker David Haines.

Early on Sunday, Prime Minister Cameron confirmed the death of the 44-year-old describing the killing as "a despicable and appalling murder of an innocent aid worker," as well as "an act of pure evil."

"We will do everything in our power to hunt down these murderers and ensure they face justice, however long it takes," Cameron pledged.

He also expressed his condolences to the victim's loved ones, saying that "my heart goes out to the family of David Haines who have shown extraordinary courage and fortitude throughout this ordeal."

In the footage, posted on the Internet late on Saturday, a hooded man with a British accent and wielding a knife addressed Cameron directly, saying that a British citizen was paying the price for the country's decision to supply weapons to Kurdish peshmerga forces who are fighting "Islamic State" (IS) extremists in northern Iraq.

'Broad-based strategy' needed

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued a statement on Sunday condemning the killing of Haines, saying it was "an abhorrent act of barbaric violence beyond all limits of human civilization."

"The international community needs to resolutely confront this threat to Iraq, the entire region and us too," he added.

Steinmeier also said that a conference on Iraq, to be held in Paris on Monday couldn't come at a better time and that he hoped the international community would be able to come up with a "broad- based and regionally anchored political strategy to confront the threat posed by ISIS (IS)."

US support

President Barack Obama issued a statement late on Saturday offering condolences to the family and the British people.

"We will work with the United Kingdom and a broad coalition of nations from the region and around the world to bring the perpetrators of this outrageous act to justice, and to degrade and destroy this threat to the people of our countries, the region and the world," Obama said.

IS extremists have also beheaded two US journalists taken hostage in Syria, James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

Haines, a former member of the Royal Air Force, had worked for various aid agencies in some of the world's most dangerous places, beginning in the former Yugoslavia in 1999. He had been working for the French-based Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development when he was seized by gunmen in Syria in March, 2013.

pfd/nm (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)