A terrorist organization linked to the Islamic State announced the beheading (in French: Hervé Gourdel Décapité) of their French hostage Hervé Gourdel in a video posted on Wednesday in Algeria.
The terrorist group, Jund al-Khilafa threatened on Monday that they will kill Hervé Gourdel, who is a mountain guide for 55 years. The threat will push through if France will not cease the airstrikes in Iraq within 24 hours. The Hervé Gourdel Décapité video was an ultimatum which was rejected by French President François Hollande on Tuesday.
The Hervé Gourdel Décapité video posted by the Islamic State-linked jihadists was originally entitled in French as "Message de sang pour le gouvernement français" or "Message of blood for the French Government" in English. It showed images of President François Hollande which were taken during a press conference where he announced the participation of France in the US-led airstrikes against the Islamic State militants in Iraq.
The French hostage was shown kneeling with his hands behind his back and was surrounded by four armed men with their faces covered in the Hervé Gourdel Décapité video. One of the men then reads a message in which he condemned the intervention of French criminals' crusaders against Muslims particularly in Algeria, Mali and Iraq.
The armed man said that time has allowed France to end its campaign against the Islamic State to save its nation and citizens. The group as showed in the Hervé Gourdel Décapité video announced that they decided to kill as retributions to avenge the victims in Algeria. They declared their support to the caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Algerian authorities have deployed 1,500 soldiers in the last two days in its northeastern part, Kabylia to attempt to locate the French hostage, Hervé Gourdel. The hiker was reportedly kidnapped in Tizi N'kouilal, a road confluence in the center of Djurdjuran National Park, a tourism hotspot that became a sanctuary to the armed terrorist group in the '90s.
The Hervé Gourdel Décapité video is comparable to the Islamic State beheading videos of two American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff who were kidnapped in Syria and of the British aid worker David Haines that were released recently.
The Islamic State-linked terrorist organization, Jund al-Khilafa ascended on the jihadist scene in late August. The group issued a press release announcing that they left the deviant Al-Qaeda and declared their allegiance to the Islamic State to which the group is willing to "obey the finger and the eye."
On Wednesday, Algerian newspapers reported that the main abductor of the French hostage Hervé Gourdel was a former military advisor to Adbelmalek Droukdel, who was an Al-Qaeda leader in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Abdelmalek Gouri, also known as Abu Khaled Selman, a 37-year old man who was part of AQIM and was behind the suicide attacks against the government citadel and a UN building in Algiers in 2007. It was also behind the assault that killed eleven soldiers in April in Iboudrarène, the same area where the abduction took place.
French President François Hollande had rejected the jihadists' ultimatum posted through the Hervé Gourdel Décapité video and said that France will continue its operations in Iraq. The French president declared in New York saying, "We will not back down to blackmail, pressure, ultimatum, even with the most heinous and the most despicable." He also said that the loose and heinous assassination will not affect France's determination to reinforce its fight against the group.
On Wednesday, the French court opened an investigation by a Paris prosecutor about the kidnapping and murder of Hervé Gourdel in Algeria in connection with a terrorist initiative. Hervé Gourdel was a mountain guide of the Mercantour National Park, north of Nice, who has a passion for photography and travel. He organized training in the Moroccan Atlas in the last twenty years.
Following the release of the Hervé Gourdel Décapité video, the village in the Alpes-Maritimes, Saint-Martin-Vesubie was stunned after the announcement of the French hostage's death on Wednesday afternoon.
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