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French hostage Herve Gourdel 'beheaded in Algeria' | |
(35 minutes later) | |
An Algerian jihadist group has released a video that appears to show the beheading of French tourist Herve Gourdel, who was seized on Sunday. | An Algerian jihadist group has released a video that appears to show the beheading of French tourist Herve Gourdel, who was seized on Sunday. |
Militant group Jund al-Khilafa had set a 24-hour deadline on Tuesday for France to halt air strikes in Iraq. | Militant group Jund al-Khilafa had set a 24-hour deadline on Tuesday for France to halt air strikes in Iraq. |
Mr Gourdel, 55, was abducted in the north-east Kabylie region. | Mr Gourdel, 55, was abducted in the north-east Kabylie region. |
France joined the US last week in launching air strikes on Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq but did not take part in the strikes on IS in Syria. | |
French President Francois Hollande and his Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, publicly rejected the group's ultimatum on Tuesday. | |
The video of Mr Gourdel apparently being killed was entitled "Message of blood for the French government", reports said. | |
IS itself has beheaded three Western hostages since August: US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker David Haines. Their deaths were all filmed and posted online. | |
The group has also threatened to kill Alan Henning, a taxi driver from the UK, who was seized while on an aid mission to Syria in December. |