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Isis crisis: Algerian extremists 'kill' French hostage Hervé Gourdel over airstrikes in Iraq Isis crisis: Algerian extremists 'behead' French hostage Hervé Gourdel over airstrikes in Iraq
(34 minutes later)
A terrorism watchdog says Algerian extremists allied with the Islamic State group have killed a French hostage. A 55-year-old French mountain guide today became the first victim of the threatened "revenge" executions following western air attacks on Isis forces in Syria and Iraq.
A group calling itself Jund al-Khilafah said after abducting Hervé Gourdel on Sunday that he would be killed within 24 hours unless France ended its airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq. The French government has insisted it will not back down. A video placed online by an Algerian jihadist group linked to Isis appeared to show the beheading of Hervé Goudel, who was kidnapped earlier this week in a mountainous region of Algeria.
U.S. terrorism watchdog SITE Intelligence Group says Jund al-Khilafah released a video online Wednesday saying Gourdel has been killed. He was a 55-year-old mountaineering guide from Nice. The French government would not immediately comment. French officials said they believed the video to be authentic but could not immediately confirm Mr Goudel’s death. President François Hollande was expected to make a statement from the UN in New York tonight.
More to follow Earlier this week, Isis called for revenge killings of westerners – especially American and French citizens – after France joined the US and Arab states in air raids on jihadist forces. It was later revealed that Mr Goudel had been seized by the Jund al-Khilafah johadist group while trekking in the Tizi Ouzou massif 110 kilometres east of Algiers.
Mr Goudel was a professional guide in the Mercantour Alps in the south of France and lived in Nice. His twin passions were mountaineering and photography.
In the video placed online today, he is  seen kneeling in a grey top emblazoned with a blue triangle in the shape of a mountain. Behind him are four masked men.
Mr Goudel looks composed but stressed. The film cuts to the French man lying on the ground as four men prepare to cut off his head. The footage cuts again to show what appears to be Mr Goudel's body.
The video resembles those which showed the beheadings of two American journalists and a British aid worker in recent weeks, but instead of showing President Barack Obama, showed French President Francois Hollande.
France started air strikes in Iraq on Friday, when it became the first European country to join the US military campaign against Isis.
"Our values are at stake," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Wednesday after hearing about the video. He would not comment further, but minutes earlier he insisted that France would continue fighting in Iraq as long as necessary.