French tourist beheaded by jihadists loyal to Islamic State

The French government has confirmed that the tourist Herve Gourdel, who was kidnapped on Sunday, has been beheaded by an Algerian militant group with ties to Islamic State.

Gourdel, 55, was captured while walking in the mountains east of Algiers by Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), a militant organisation that grew out of Algerian Islamist groups involved in the country's civil war in the 1990s. After taking Gourdel hostage, the jihadists issued an ultimatum to French president Francois Hollande to halt air strikes on IS militants within 24 hours. After the deadline passed, a video that appeared to show Gourdel's murder was posted online.

Hollande confirmed the beheading late on Wednesday, describing the act as "cowardly and cruel". He vowed that France would continue to take part in joint military operations against IS, saying "it is not weakness that should be the response to terrorism but force."

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Jund al-Khilafa, led by a militant named Abdelmalek Gouri, has previously affiliated itself with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Algerian forces had launched a search for Gourdel shortly after he was kidnapped, but failed to locate him.

Geoff Porter, founder of North Africa Risk Consulting, told the Financial Times that jihadist groups in Algeria have been fracturing, and are now "outbidding" one another and carrying out attacks to try to distinguish themselves from the other groups.

Before he was captured, Gourdel had been a mountain guide in the Mercantour national park near his home town of Nice.

According to the BBC's Lucy Williamson, the fact that Gourdel was visiting a region popular with French tourists has added to the nation's shock.

Gourdel's kidnapping came after IS called for Muslims around the world to attack Americans and Europeans, specifically mentioning the "filthy French".

Throughout the 1990s Algeria fought a bloody civil war against Islamist militants, leading to tens of thousands of deaths. Authorities fear that political upheaval in neighbouring Libya after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi has created a new generation of heavily armed extremists.