ISIS Execution Of Croatian Hostage? Sinai Province Beheads Tomislav Salopek

The latest in the events surrounding the purported slaying by Egypt’s Islamic State affiliate of Croatian hostage Tomislav Salopek, after an online image was circulated Wednesday showing his beheaded body. A man identifying himself as Salopek appeared in a hostage video last week.

Initially, ISIS were thought to have demanded the immediate release of Muslim women locked up in Egyptian jails but they did not clarify who was it.

Speaking in Belgrade after his meeting with Milorad Pupovac, a representative of Serbs from Croatia, Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic said that if the reports about Salopek’s death are true, he was offering his deepest condolences to the family of the victim and to Croatia on his own behalf, and on the behalf of his cabinet. The Prime Minister was due to give a press conference at 5pm.

The chief spokesman for Salopek’s employer says “we fear the worst” but could not confirm that he was killed by Islamic State extremists.

He said: “They want to substitute me for the Muslim womans arrested in Egyptian prisons”.

Last December, the affiliate claimed responsibility for the killing of an American oil worker with Texas-based energy company Apache Corp. The company confirmed last Wednesday that Salopek was an employee.

If confirmed, it would be the first beheading of a Western hostage held by Sinai Province, the Egyptian group which changed its name from Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis after it pledged allegiance to Islamic State.