bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

Egypt’s affiliate of the Islamic State group has threatened to execute a Croatian kidnapped in Cairo last month within 48 hours if Muslim women jailed in Egypt are not freed.
The man is the first foreigner to be abducted and threatened with death by militants in Egypt since an Islamist insurgency erupted two years ago.
In a video posted online by the jihadists on Wednesday, the Croatian identifies himself as Tomislav Salopek working for French geoscience company CGG, and appears kneeling at the feet of a hooded man holding a knife.
 Reading from a sheet of paper, he says he will be executed within 48 hours if Egypt’s government fails to release Muslim women held in prisons.
 Salopek, wearing an orange jumpsuit, did not say when the countdown began.
 He said he was abducted on July 22 by the Sinai Province group, IS’s Egyptian affiliate based in the Sinai Peninsula.
 Formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, the group changed its name when it pledged allegiance to IS in November.
 In Zagreb, the foreign ministry said the “Croatian government... is doing its best to solve as soon as possible the difficult situation in which the Croatian citizen T.S. is,” identifying the hostage only with his initials.
 “Considering the very difficult and sensitive circumstances and in order not to make a difficult situation worse, we are not able to provide more detailed information at this moment.”
 Croatia’s Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic will travel to the Egyptian capital on Thursday, the ministry later added in another statement.
 “Pusic is in contact with the Egyptian foreign minister and in agreement with him and his recommendations she will go to Cairo,” it said.
 CGG confirmed that the man in the video was one of its “sub-contracted staff working on a land acquisition seismic crew” and that he had been “kidnapped on July 22nd while in transit in Cairo”.
 “He is the hostage appearing on the video released today by the Sinai Province of Islamic State,” it said, without naming him.
 Salopek, a father of two, is the first foreigner to be abducted and threatened with death by militants in Egypt since the Islamist insurgency broke out after the army’s ouster of president Mohammed Mursi two years ago.
 In December, the Sinai Province claimed it had killed in August an American working for petroleum company Apache.
 Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was overthrown by then army chief and now President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi after mass street protests against his divisive single year in office.
 The authorities subsequently launched a sweeping crackdown targeting Mursi’s supporters in which hundreds of people were killed and thousands jailed, including women and girl students.
 Hundreds more were sentenced to death after speedy trials, denounced as the United Nations as “unprecedented in recent history”.
 In retaliation, militants have killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers, mostly in the Sinai Peninsula.
 The group has also staged attacks elsewhere, including the capital.
 In July, IS said it was behind a car bomb attack targeting the Italian consulate in Cairo - the first such attack against a foreign mission in Egypt since jihadists began their campaign following the crackdown on Islamists.
 In February, IS released a video showing the beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians, all but one of them Egyptians, in neighbouring Libya.
 That massacre prompted air strikes by Cairo targeting IS in Libya.
 The threat to execute Salopek comes ahead of Thursday’s inauguration of the “new” Suez Canal in the port city of Ismailiya, with hundreds of foreign dignitaries, including French President Francois Hollande, due to attend.


Islamic State threatens to execute Croatian hostage if Muslim women jailed in Egypt are not freed

This image made from a militant video posted on a social media website on Wednesday, purports to show a militant standing next to another man who identifies himself as 30-year-old Tomislav Salopek. Photo: AP

Caliphate kids: in Islamic State training camp, abducted children told to 'behead the doll'

Abducted youngsters, who were forced to train with Islamic State, parade in Tal Afar, northern Iraq, after graduation.Photo: AP

Young boys known as the "lion cubs" hold rifles and Islamic State group flags as they exercise at a training camp in Tal Afar, near Mosul, northern Iraq. Photo: AP

An Islamic State militant (left) distributes soft drinks, candy, biscuits along with religious pamphlets to a Syrian young girl during a street preaching event in Tel Abyad in Raqqa province, northeast Syria. Photo: AP

Young Syrians attend a class of Islamic religious lessons at an Islamic teaching centre designed to counter Islamic State group indoctrination, near the Turkish-Syrian border city of Sanliurfa, southern Turkey. Photo: AP 

Jordan executes two Islamist prisoners after Islamic State video of hostage pilot’s death

A caged Maaz al-Kassasbeh is seen with his head bowed shortly before being set on fire in a still from the horrific video. Photo: Reuters

Convicted Iraqi bomber Sajida al-Rishawi was executed in response to Islamic State's killing of a Jordanian pilot. Photo: EPA

The video shows a man purported to be Islamic State captive Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh (in orange jumpsuit) standing in front of armed men. Photo: Reuters

Saif al-Kasaesbeh (third right), father of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh, prays at the family's clan headquarters with other mourners in the city of Karak. Photo: Reuters

Anwar al-Tarawneh (centre), the wife of Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh, holds a poster of him with Arabic that reads, "we are all Muath." Photo: AP

The video shows a man purported to be Islamic State captive Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh standing in a cage. Photo: Reuters

US President Barack Obama says the video, if real, would redouble the determination of a US-led alliance to degrade and destroy Islamic State. Photo: EPA

British PM Cameron vows justice over Islamic State beheading of aid worker David Haines

A frame from the video showing aid worker Haines. Photo: Reuters

Egypt hits back at Islamic State executions with air strikes in Libya

Men in orange jumpsuits said to be Egyptian Coptic Christians being held captive by Islamic State kneel in front of their executioners on a beach said to be near Tripoli, Libya. Photo: Reuters

A still image from a video purports to show Egyptian Christians being held captive by the Islamic State, kneeling on a beach before being beheaded. Photo: Reuters

Kayla Mueller, who was killed in Syria this month. Photo: EPA

News

World

Egypt’s affiliate of the Islamic State group has threatened to execute a Croatian kidnapped in Cairo last month within 48 hours if Muslim women jailed in Egypt are not freed.
