Islamic State Egypt affiliate says beheads Croatian hostage

The group has also posted videos appearing to show the killings of Egyptians it accuses of helping the Egyptian government or Israel.

The Egypt affiliate of ISIS, the Islamic extremist group, has just has released photographic evidence that purports to show the execution of a Croatian hostage named Tomislav Salopek.

Croatia’s prime minister Zoran Milanovic said on Wednesday that he was unable to confirm Salopek’s death but feared the worst.

“The killing of the Croatian captive for his country’s participation in the war against Islamic State, after the ultimatum has expired and Egypt’s… government and his country have abandoned him”, the caption of the photo read.

Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group says the beheading of Salopek is a sign of the Cairo government’s failure to curb extremism.

Citing the Foreign Ministry, Reuters reported that the 31-year-old man, identified only as T.S., was kidnapped on Wednesday morning when his vehicle was stopped by armed men.

CNN could not independently confirm the authenticity of the image.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.

“It is my duty to break the silence and tell the Croatian public that we can not confirm with 100 percent certainty that it is true what we see, and which is horrifying”, he told a news conference.

In the wake of the execution of Croatian citizen, Tomislav Salopek, speculation has mounted that the man’s capture and subsequent murder came after Islamic militant group, ISIS demands for a $30 million ransom failed to be paid.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar institute, the top center of religious learning for Sunni Muslims, has condemned the killing of Salopek, calling it a “demonic act” contrary to all religion.

The sister of a woman jailed on charges of belonging to the Brotherhood, Esraa el-Taweel, who had previously pleaded for Salopek’s life to be spared, said she spoke about the matter during a recent prison visit.

Salopek, a surveyor working with France’s CGG Ardiseis, was abducted on July 22. The company has an office in the leafy southern suburb of Maadi, where many expats and diplomats live.

ISIS holds about a third of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in its self-declared “caliphate”.

ISIS has used this script before: taking a civilian from another country hostage, threatening to kill them, then carrying out a beheading when their demands aren’t met. The killings have been part of the Islamist terrorist group’s propaganda campaign, often publicized in videos.

Foley’s taped beheading was followed by the killing of American-Israeli journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, American aid worker Peter Kassig, as well as Japanese nationals Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.

Sinai Province is at the forefront of an Islamist militant insurgency in Egypt that has killed hundreds of soldiers and police in the two years since the military ousted Islamist President Mohamed Mursi after protests against his rule in 2013.

Militants have also targeted foreign interests, including the Italian Consulate, which was hit with a vehicle bomb last month. That attack came two days after another bomb killed Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat in an upscale Cairo neighborhood.