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1st LD: UN deplores targeting of people on account of religious affiliation

Xinhua, February 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Monday condemned "in the strongest terms" the killing of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, and deplored "the targeting of people on account of their religious affiliation."

Those Egyptians were killed by Daesyh, the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levan, the secretary-general said in a statement issued here by his spokesman. "The secretary-general expresses his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives as a result of this barbaric act and to the Government of Egypt."

A video, released on Sunday evening, claimed to show the mass beheading of 21 Christians, kidnapped in Libya, reports said.

The five-minute video was filmed in a style similar to that of previous videos depicting the murders of Western prisoners by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an armed group that overran large parts of Iraq and Syria last year, said the reports. Endite