ISIS-linked militants in Algeria have beheaded a French tourist captured at the weekend - having earlier made threats to kill him if France did not stop bombing targets in Iraq.
Herve Gourdel, 55, was captured by the Islamist group Jund al-Khilifa while hiking in the Djurdjura National Park on Sunday - just one day after he arrived in Algeria for a walking holiday.
A video featuring Mr Gourdel was released yesterday in which the militants threatened to kill the French national unless France stops bombing ISIS targets in Iraq by the end of the day.
The footage prompted some 1,500 Algerian forces to comb through the restive, mountainous Tizi Ouzou region in the east of Algeria - desperately trying to save Mr Gourdel before it was too late.
This afternoon the terrorism watchdog SITE Intelligence Group distributed a video by Jund al-Khilafah announcing Mr Gourdel's death.
Images of the execution emerged on social media a short time later, showing the mountaineering guide wearing a purple T-shirt surrounded by masked men, with his hands bound behind his back.
Yesterday a video posted on YouTube showed the white-haired, bespectacled Mr Gourdel surrounded by masked men holding Kalashnikov rifles.
The group threatened to kill their hostage by the end of the day unless France ceased its air strikes in Iraq, where ISIS terrorists control vast swaths of territory under the guise of a 'caliphate'.
The Algerian murderers referred to their group as Jund al-Khilifa - which means 'caliphate soldiers.'
'Soldiers are combing through the area,' an Algerian security source said this afternoon, before Mr Gourdel's brutal death was eventually confirmed by terrorism watchdog SITE Intelligence Group.
The hunt for Mr Gourdel came a day after President Francois Hollande vowed not to give in to the jihadists' demands, on the sidelines of an official trip to New York.
'As grave as this situation is, we will not give in to any blackmail, any pressure, any ultimatum, no matter how odious, how despicable,' he said.
'What is at stake here is our liberty, our security and sovereignty. No terrorist group can influence the will, position or freedom of France,' he added.
Gourdel, who lived in the southern French city of Nice, only arrived in Algeria on Saturday and was seized the following day while hiking in the heart of the Djurdjura National Park - whose dense forests, deep gorges and picturesque lakes were once a major draw for tourists.
However, the mountains became a sanctuary for Islamists in the 1990s who later swore allegiance to Al Qaeda, and security forces have been unable to dislodge them.
A passionate photographer and mountaineer, Mr Gourdel liked going off the beaten track, though he was always careful, his friends said.
'I often bump into him in the mountains and he always goes to little-known areas of the massif, never on the major routes where there are people,' said Michel Ingigliardi, his friend of 30 years in Saint-Martin-Vesubie, a village nestled deep in the French Alps outside Nice.
'Going to far-away isolated countries is consistent with his personality.'
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