ISIS-linked militants in Algeria have beheaded a French tourist captured at the weekend - having earlier made threats to kill him if France did not stop bombing targets in Iraq.
Herve Gourdel, 55, was captured by the Islamist group
Jund al-Khilifa while hiking in the
Djurdjura National Park on Sunday - just one day after he arrived in Algeria for a walking holiday. A video featuring Mr Gourdel was released yesterday in which the militants threatened to kill the French national unless France stops bombing ISIS targets in Iraq by the end of the day.
The footage prompted some 1,500 Algerian forces to comb through the restive, mountainous Tizi Ouzou region in the east of Algeria - desperately trying to save Mr Gourdel before it was too late.
This afternoon the terrorism watchdog
SITE Intelligence Group distributed a video by Jund al-Khilafah announcing Mr Gourdel's death. Images of the execution emerged on social media a short time later, showing the mountaineering guide wearing a purple T-shirt surrounded by masked men, with his hands bound behind his back. The Algerian murderers are referred to their group as Jund al-Khilifa - which means
'caliphate soldiers.'
A passionate photographer and mountaineer, Mr Gourdel liked going off the beaten track, though he was always careful, his friends said.
'I often bump into him in the mountains and he always goes to little-known areas of the massif, never on the major routes where there are people,' said
Michel Ingigliardi, his friend of 30 years in Saint-Martin-Vesubie, a village nestled deep in the French Alps outside Nice.
'Going to far-away isolated countries is consistent with his personality.'
Photo Credit: BBC / DailyMail
No comments:
Post a Comment