Algeria finds body of beheaded French tourist
Xinhua, January 16, 2015 Adjust font size:
The Algerian army said on Thursday that they had found the body of French tourist Herve Gourdel, who was beheaded months ago by jihadists trying to threaten France out of its strikes against the Islamic State group.
"Following information provided by an arrested terrorist," Gourdel's body was found in the woods of mountain Djurdjura in the upper side of Tizi Ouzou province, about 120 km east of the capital Algiers, according to a Defense Ministry statement.
A source said that the body remains were disinterred in the presence of government and security authorities, and that forensics performed DNA tests on the remains for identification.
Herve Gourdel was abducted in mountain Djurdjura on Sept. 21 last year and then decapitated two days later in an online video. A local armed group, the Caliphate Soldiers, claimed responsibility for the perpetration, saying they did it to pledge their allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
About 3,000 troops have been deployed in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou to track down the assailants. Last December, the Algerian Defense Ministry announced to have killed the leader of the Caliphate Soldiers, Abdelmalek Gouri. Endit