James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines and now reportedly Herve Gourdel. These are all the victims of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or ISIS influenced terrorists. The French President, François Hollande condemned the apparent beheading of a French mountain climber at the hands of Algerian militants, who pledge their allegiance to ISIS.
ISIS’ past three videos of brutal beheadings showed the innocent victims in orange garb on their knees as a man dressed in all black spoke to the camera. In this video, which showed up online today, the man appears to be 55-year-old Nice native Herve Gourdel kneeling in front of several armed militants as a statement is made by one of them in Arabic. Near the end of the nearly 5-minute video, Gourdel is pushed over and held down, at which point the video cuts out.
According to reports, before Gourdel’s death, the militant says he and his comrades will be “closer to Allah by killing this filthy Frenchman in defense of Allah’s religion,” and then addresses ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, saying, “we are with you… here are your soldiers fighting those you fight and making peace with those you make peace with.”
Hollande said on Twitter, “Our compatriot Herve Gourdel was assassinated by a terrorist group cowardly, cruelly, shamefully. I am thinking of him.”
