ISIS-linked militants in Algeria have beheaded a French
tourist captured this week - having made earlier threats to kill him if France
did not stop bombing targets in Iraq.
Herve Gourdel, 55, was captured by Islamist group Jund
al-Khilifa on Sunday - just one day after he arrived in the country on holiday.
A filmed video threatening to kill Mr Gourdel unless France
does not stop bombing ISIS targets in Iraq was released yesterday, prompting
some 1,500 Algerian forces combed through the restive, mountainous Tizi Ouzou
region in the east of the country.
In a video posted on YouTube that showed the white-haired, bespectacled Gourdel surrounded by masked men holding Kalashnikov rifles, the group had threatened to kill their hostage by the end of the night if Paris did not stop air strikes in Iraq, where IS controls large areas.
'Soldiers are combing through the area,' an Algerian
security source said this afternoon, before Mr Gourdel's death was eventually
confirmed.
The hunt for Mr Gourdel came a day after President Francois
Hollande vowed not to give in to the jihadists' demands, on the sidelines of an
official trip to New York.
'As grave as this situation is, we will not give in to any
blackmail, any pressure, any ultimatum, no matter how odious, how despicable,'
he said.
'What is at stake here is our liberty, our security and
sovereignty. No terrorist group can influence the will, position or freedom of
France,' he added.
Gourdel, who lived in the southern French city of Nice, only
arrived in Algeria on Saturday and was seized the following day while hiking in
the heart of the Djurdjura National Park - whose dense forests, deep gorges and
picturesque lakes were once a major draw for tourists.
However, the mountains became a sanctuary for Islamists in
the 1990s who later swore allegiance to Al Qaeda, and security forces have been
unable to dislodge them.
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.'
Credit: The Mail
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