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French hostage Herve Gourdel 'beheaded in Algeria' | 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. |
Jund al-Khilafa, an ally of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and Iraq, had set a 24-hour deadline for France to halt air strikes on IS 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 US air strikes on IS in Iraq last week but has not taken part in strikes on the group in Syria. | |
French President Francois Hollande and 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". | |
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. | 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. | 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. |
On Sunday, it warned it would target Americans and other Western citizens, "especially the spiteful and filthy French". | |
'Odious ultimatum' | |
Mr Gourdel was a mountain guide in the Mercantour national park north of the French city of Nice. | |
He had been organising treks through the Atlas Mountains of Morocco for some 20 years, AFP news agency reports. | |
Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate) pledged allegiance to IS on 14 September. | |
Until then it had been known as part of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), which grew out of an Algerian militant group and is now active across North and parts of West Africa. | |
Who are Jund al-Khilafa? | |
The group claimed Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah, a French citizen of Algerian origin, as a member after he killed seven people in south-western France in March 2012, French radio reports. | |
The militants said that they were responding to the IS call to attack citizens involved in strikes on Iraq and would kill Mr Gourdel unless France ended its military operation. | |
On Tuesday, President Hollande said: "As grave as this situation is, we will not give into any blackmail, any pressure, any ultimatum no matter how odious, how despicable." | |
France's public position is that it does not negotiate with militant groups but there have been reports of French citizens being released in West Africa after ransoms have been paid. | |
Four Frenchmen kidnapped in Niger were freed in October 2013 amid reports of a 20m-euro (£16m; £25m) ransom being paid. The government in Paris denied that was the case. |