Algeria jihadist video shows beheading of French hostage



An Algerian jihadist group linked to Islamic State released a video Wednesday purportedly showing the beheading of a French tourist who was abducted on Sunday, a U.S. terrorist watchdog group says.

After seizing Herve Gourdel, a 55-year-old mountaineering guide from Nice, the extremist group Jund al-Khilafah warned the hostage would be killed within 24 hours unless French President Francois Hollande halted French air strikes in Iraq against the Islamic State extremist group.

France insisted that it would not back down on the attacks.

SITE Inteligence Group, a U.S. organization that analyzes and monitors jihadist groups, said Jund al-Khilafah released the video online on Wednesday.

The video is titled in French, "A message of blood for the French government." It shows him kneeling, with his arms tied behind his back, in front of a half-dozen armed and masked men in various garb.

At one point, a militant approaches Gourdel with a knife. The actual beheading is not is not depicted in the video, rather it goes to black, and resumes with a shot of what appears to be the victim's severed head resting on his body.

Captives are politely asked to convert twice, but if they refuse a third time, they are whipped. By the fourth time, they face death, according to the reports.