ISIL Egyptian affiliate ‘beheads Croatian hostage’

THE Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group’s Egypt affiliate, the Sinai Province, has published a still photo of the beheaded body of a Croatian hostage it had threatened to kill last week, the SITE monitoring service reported.

The photo included a caption that said “killing of the Croatian hostage, due to his country’s participation in the war against Islamic State, after the deadline expired”.

SITE said the photo was distributed on Twitter yesterday.

A spokesman from the Egyptian interior ministry’s press office said: “We have seen this news online but are currently making our own checks.
“If we confirm that it is indeed true, we will inform the media through a statement,” he told Reuters.

Last week, an online video purportedly from Sinai Province showed a man who identified himself as Tomislav Salopek who said the group would kill him in 48 hours if Muslim women in Egyptian jails were not freed.

Ardiseis Egypt, a unit of French firm CGG, which specialises in oil and gas geology, said last week one of its staff had been abducted on July 22 while travelling to Cairo.

Croatia’s foreign ministry said it could not confirm Salopek’s death. But the country’s prime minister, Zoran Milanovic, was due to address the nation later yesterday.

There has been no official confirmation of the death of Tomislav Salopek.

The photo circulated online yesterday 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”.

Croatia’s foreign ministry said it could not confirm Mr Salopek’s death, but Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic will hold a news conferene at 17:00 (15:00 GMT). President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic also said she cancelled all her pre-arranged activities yesterday.