French Hostage Hervé Gourdel Beheaded in Algeria by Islamic Jihadists Linked to ISIS

Another beheading from ISIS, this time is is Jund al-Khilafa who posted a video of French hostage Herve Gourdel being killed that was entitled “Message of blood for the French government”. The group calling itself Jund al-Khilafah, Soldiers of the Caliphate, released a video that appeared to depict the beheading of 55 year old Hervé Gourdel, a mountain guide from Nice, France who had only arrived in Algeria the previous day. TheIslamic terrorists said that the murder of Herve Gourde was a response to his government’s action against Isis in Iraq, where France launched its first air strikes last Friday.

ISIS has now beheaded individuals from the United States (James Foley and Steven Sotloff) , Great Britain (David Haines) and now France.

France has confirmed that an Algerian jihadist group linked to Islamic State (IS) militants has beheaded tourist Herve Gourdel, seized on Sunday.

Jund al-Khilafa killed Mr Gourdel, 55, after its deadline for France to halt air strikes on IS in Iraq ran out.

French President Francois Hollande condemned the killing as a “cruel and cowardly” act.

He said that French air strikes which began on IS targets in Iraq last week would continue.

Speaking at the UN general assembly, Mr Hollande said that Mr Gourdel’s abduction and decapitation was a barbaric act of terrorism which presented a problem not only for the region but also for the world.

He said the fight against terrorism should know no borders and that France was now in mourning.

“It is not weakness that should be the response to terrorism but force,” he said.

French tourist beheaded in Algeria by jihadis linked to Islamic State

The video shows Gourdel kneeling, with his arms tied behind his back, in front of four masked militants who read out a statement in Arabic criticising France’s military intervention. They then pushed him on his side and held him down.

The beheading is not shown, but one militant holds his severed head up to the camera. “This is why the Soldiers of the Caliphate in Algeria have decided to punish France, by executing this man, and to defend our beloved Islamic State,” one of the militants said in the video.

Gourdel briefly addressed his family before the militants gave their statement.

The release of the beheading video could have been timed to coincide with Barack Obama’s address to the General Assembly on Wednesday in which the US president urged the world to come together to defeat a jihadist “network of death” in Iraq and Syria.