Foley was abducted in November in Syria, where he has worked for a year. He had been detained before while working in Libya but was released by the government.

The rapidly mounting death toll

At least 129 people were killed across Syria on Friday, according to the Local Coordination Committees, an opposition activist network. CNN cannot independently confirm those numbers.

The overall death toll in Syria has surpassed 60,000 people, the United Nations said Wednesday.

That's roughly the population of Terre Haute, Indiana; or Cheyenne, Wyoming. It's how many people would fit in Dodger Stadium, and it's more than the 50,000-plus U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam.

On Thursday, al-Assad's forces bombed the Damascus suburb of Douma with airstrikes. In videos posted on the Internet, residents could be seen combing through rubble and pulling out bodies.