Algerian jihadists linked to Islamic State militants have claimed in a video to have beheaded a French tourist abducted on Sunday, the SITE jihadists monitoring service has reported.
In the online video, the Algerian militants who call themselves Jund al-Khilafah, or Soldiers of the Caliphate, claim they beheaded French citizen Herve Gourdel.
The group abducted Gourdel on Sunday and said that he would be killed within 24 hours unless France ended its military action against IS in Iraq.
French hostage Gourdel beheaded by ISIS-linked group in Algeria after deadline expired for France to stop airstrikes pic.twitter.com/j3ToqkWRXV
— PzFeed Top News (@PzFeed) September 24, 2014
Earlier, France confirmed the authenticity of the video released by the group Monday. However, Paris said that the terrorist group’s threats will not change France’s position.
Gourdel, 55, a mountaineering guide from Nice, was abducted in the Kabylie region of northeast Algeria while hiking with two friends Sunday, Algerian security officials said. The group of tourists had spent the night at a ski lodge near the town of Tikdjda, 65 miles from the capital, Algiers.
