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Backgrounder: Hostages taken by Islamic State

Xinhua, September 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Chinese government said Thursday that it was verifying information about the abduction of a Chinese national by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group. Following are some of the hostages taken and killed by the IS in recent years:

Aug. 17, 2015 -- Khaled al-Asaad, 81, a long-time director of Syria's ancient ruins of Palmyra, was beheaded by IS militants, and his body was hung on a pole on a main square.

Aug. 12, 2015 -- The IS affiliate in Egypt claimed to have beheaded a Croatian hostage kidnapped in July 2015, according to an image the group posted online that purportedly shows the victim's body.

Under the online picture, the IS wrote "the Croatian hostage was beheaded, whose country took part in war against the Islamic State, and after the 48 hours have passed without Egyptian government or his country intervention to rescue him."

Feb. 10, 2015 -- The United States confirmed the death of an American female hostage held by the IS. Kayla Jean Mueller, a 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker, was captured in Syria in August 2013. The IS claimed she had been killed in a Jordanian airstrike. However, U.S. officials at the time said they could not confirm it.

January 2015 -- Two Japanese nationals, Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, held by the IS, were beheaded successively by the extremist group.

Nov. 16, 2014 -- The IS announced in an online video that it had beheaded U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig, who worked with charity groups in Lebanon and Syria and was captured in October 2013.

Oct. 3, 2014 -- The IS claimed responsibility in an online video that showed the beheading of British aid worker Alan Henning. Henning, who was a taxi driver in Britain, was held since 2013 by IS militants. He was on an aid convoy for Syrian refugees when he was captured by the terrorists.

Sept. 24, 2014 -- French President Francois Hollande confirmed the death of a Frenchman abducted in eastern Algeria by a group linked to IS militants in Iraq and Syria.

In a video footage, the IS urged its followers to attack westerners whose nations have joined a coalition to fight the jihadist group after France launched its first air raids against IS targets on Sept. 19, 2014.

Sept. 13, 2014 -- The IS released a video showing the beheading of British aid worker David Haines, who was kidnapped in Syria.

Sept. 2, 2014 -- The IS released an online video that appeared to show the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff. The group had threatened to kill the American freelancer in a video posted online on Aug. 19, in which another American journalist, James Foley, was beheaded to avenge U.S. airstrikes on the group's targets in northern Iraq. Endi