Two groups involved in kidpapping of Croatian in Cairo: FM

“We’ve obviously seen Prime Minister Milanovic’s statement about the reported murder of a Croatian citizen Tomislav Salopek by ISIL terrorists in Egypt. We understand the government of Croatia is still working to confirm this brutal act”.

“The conclusion was that there is no specific request and that we were dealing with two different organizations”, Pusic said, “one that kidnapped him and the other that identified itself as the Islamic State”.

Residents of Salopek’s small hometown of Vrpolje have they hope the news is not true and still hope for his return.

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the picture.

He appeared in a video last week in which he appealed to the Egyptian government to free female political prisoners in Egyptian jails within 48 hours, warning that he would be killed by the Daesh-linked group.

That suggests they could have come from a variety of isolated places in Egypt, including the restive northern Sinai Peninsula, where Egypt’s Islamic State affiliate is based, or the vast Western Desert, which is a gateway to volatile and lawless Libya, home to its own Islamic State branch.

Salopek’s killing is the first of a foreign captive in Egypt, where the government has been struggling to project an image of stability and revive the economy following years of unrest.

The Islamic State group holds about a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared “caliphate”. IS has released a number of graphic videos showing the beheading of hostages.