EGYPT-CROATIA/HOSTAGE REAX Islamic State says in broadcast that it killed Croatian hostage, Croatian FM says "no definite confirmation"

Record ID: 144066

  • Title: EGYPT-CROATIA/HOSTAGE REAX Islamic State says in broadcast that it killed Croatian hostage, Croatian FM says "no definite confirmation"
  • Date: 13th August 2015
  • Summary: ZAGREB, CROATIA (AUGUST 13, 2015) (REUTERS) MAIN SQUARE EQUESTRIAN STATUE IN MAIN SQUARE PEOPLE BUYING NEWSPAPERS AT NEWSSTAND NEWSPAPERS AT STREET STAND FRONT PAGES OF VECERNJI LIST AND JUTARNJI LIST DAILY NEWSPAPERS VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN STREET CAFE READING NEWSPAPERS NEWSPAPERS AT NEWSSTAND VECERNJI LIST DAILY FRONT PAGE, SHOWING PICTURE OF TOMISLAV SALOPEK AND READING (
  • Embargoed: 28th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA33F8UDH6RYZU0C6LW00W94ZFA
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The militant group Islamic State said in an audio broadcast on Thursday (August 13) that its Egyptian affiliate had killed a Croatian hostage, a day after a photograph of a beheaded corpse purported to be that of the Croat was circulated by the group's supporters.
    Egypt's Foreign Ministry said security forces still had "no confirmed information" about the beheading. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the picture.
    In Thursday's daily audio broadcast of its activities across the Middle East, Islamic State said: "In Sinai Province, the soldiers of the caliphate killed the Croatian captive whose country participated in the war on Islamic State after the deadline expired and both the Egyptian and his own governments abandoned him."
    Last week, an online video purportedly from Sinai Province showed a man who identified himself as Tomislav Salopek and said the group would kill him in 48 hours unless "Muslim women" in Egyptian jails were freed.
    Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri told his Croatian counterpart Vesna Pusic on Wednesday (August 12) that the authorities were still doing all they could to find and arrest the kidnappers, his ministry said.
    Pusic on Thursday said that neither country currently had "definite confirmation" that the photograph -- circulating on Twitter accounts of supporters of the Sinai Province group and showing a man's severed head placed on his body with the black Islamic State flag in the background -- showed Croatian hostage Tomislav Salopek.
    "At this moment we are still not certain, and we have no definite confirmation, neither from the Egyptian authorities nor from our own sources, that the person in the photo published yesterday is indeed Tomislav Salopek. However, regarding the intensity of our activities - as well as activities of the Egyptian authorities and all our other partners in this situation - it [the intensity] will not be reduced, not even by a little," she said.
    On the streets of Zagreb, Croatians said that they held out hope that Salopek may yet be alive.
    "I feel terrible, I cried even, it's very difficult for me. But I still hope that this is not true," one pensioner from Zagreb, Stefanija, said.
    "I feel really bad about the man. Things like these that keep going are in no way humanly decent, and in my opinion they should be stopped somehow," another pensioner, Boris, added.
    In the village of Vrpolje, Salopek's home town, all was quiet as residents remained in shock after the reports of beheading.
    30-year-old Salopek, employed in Egypt by a French company which specialises in oil and gas geology, was kidnapped on July 22 while traveling to Cairo and shown last week in a video released online by an Islamic State affiliate.
    In the video the group said they would kill him in 48 hours if Muslim women in Egyptian jails were not freed.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register