Islamic State militants holding American journalist James Foley had demanded ransom amounting to US$132 million for his release, Global Post said Wednesday.

Global Post CEO Philip Balboni made the revelation after Foley was murdered by a jihadist who now is being identified as possibly one of some 500 British nationals fighting for the IS in Iraq and Syria.

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In an interview over National Public Radio, Balboni said the initial ransom demand was made in November 2013, one year after Foley was abducted in Syria. At that time, Global Post and the Foley family had demanded, and and given, proof that James Foley was alive.

"When those proof-of-life questions came back answered correctly, perfectly, it was a hair-raising moment for all of us because we knew definitively, with certainty, that we were dealing with the people who were holding Jim," Balboni said in the interview over NPR.

Balboni also revealed that Global Post had contracted an international security firm to try and locate Foley once he was reported missing while working near the Turkish-Syrian border, and said he agreed with the Foley family that they would pay if they could raise the money.

The U.S. has begun a formal criminal investigation into Foley's death, and cooperating with British police and security services in attempting to identify the IS jihadist who spoke on the video before beheading the American journalist. Sources in the UK had said the man is most probable from London or south-east England.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the U.S. will be determined in its pursuit of the killers, saying that the country has a "long memory."

"Those who would perpetrate such acts need to understand something: this justice department, the Department of Defence, this nation, we have long memories and our reach is very wide," Holder said.

On Wednesday, the Pentagon revealed that the U.S. had "attempted a rescue operation recently to free a number of American hostages held in Syria."

"Unfortunately, the mission was not successful because the hostages were not present at the targeted location," the Pentagon statement said.

U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel later confirmed that James Foley was among those they had attempted to rescue in the operation.
Although the mission did not succeed in freeing any of the hostages, Hagel said it was not a "failure of intelligence."

U.S. Army General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the mission "was executed flawlessly, after a significant period of preparation and planning... and it turned out the hostages were no longer at that location."

It was the first acknowledgement by the U.S. government that American forces had operated in Syria since the country's civil war began in 2011.

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