This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-33886553
The article has changed 9 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 3 | Version 4 |
|---|---|
| Tomislav Salopek: Croatia fears for Egypt hostage | Tomislav Salopek: Croatia fears for Egypt hostage |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Croatia says it fears the worst for one of its nationals abducted in Egypt but cannot confirm he has been beheaded by militants affiliated to Islamic State. | Croatia says it fears the worst for one of its nationals abducted in Egypt but cannot confirm he has been beheaded by militants affiliated to Islamic State. |
| Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic addressed the nation following claims by an Egyptian jihadist group to have killed Tomislav Salopek. | |
| A photo purporting to show his body was posted on Twitter by a user associated with the group Sinai Province. | |
| It earlier threatened to kill him unless Egypt freed jailed Muslim women. | It earlier threatened to kill him unless Egypt freed jailed Muslim women. |
| The photo circulated online on Wednesday shows a decapitated body in what appears to be desert, beside a knife driven into the sand and the black banner used by IS. | |
| The caption says the Croatian, aged about 30, was killed "for his country's participation in the war against Islamic State". | |
| Mr Salopek, a father of two, had been working as a surveyor in Egypt for the French geoscience company CGG, which is involved in the oil and gas industry. | |
| He was abducted while travelling in a car on the Oasis Road, about 22km (14 miles) west of Cairo, on 22 July, security sources told the AFP news agency. | |
| Frantic search | |
| The Croatian government could not confirm Mr Salopek's death "with 100% certainty", Prime Minister Milanovic said in an address to the nation. | |
| Mr Milanovic also urged people not to share the gruesome image posted online. | |
| He added that Croatia would not take part in combat operations against IS. | |
| The Egyptian authorities mounted a frantic search for Mr Salopek but were unable to establish whether he was in the Sinai peninsula, Egypt's Western Desert or even across the border in Libya. | |
| A week ago, Sinai Province posted a video showing a man who identified himself as Mr Salopek wearing an orange-coloured jumpsuit and kneeling in the desert next to a masked militant holding a knife. | |
| Speaking in English, the man said that Sinai Province wanted to "substitute" him with Muslim women in Egyptian prisons, and that the Egyptian government had 48 hours to comply before he was killed. | |
| As many as 40,000 Muslim Brotherhood supporters and other Islamists are believed to have been detained and more than 1,000 others killed in a crackdown by the Egyptian authorities since the military overthrew President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013. | |
| If Mr Salopek's death is confirmed, it would be the first time that jihadist militants in Egypt have beheaded a Western hostage since stepping up their campaign against the state two years ago. | |
| Sinai Province has claimed it was behind the killing of the American petroleum engineer William Henderson, whose body was found in a car in the Western Desert in August 2014. | |
| The jihadist group was known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis until it pledged allegiance to IS in November and changed its name. | |
| Militants belonging or linked to IS have carried out or claimed a series of killings of Western and other hostages over the last year or so. They include US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning. |