Croatian hostage killed in Egypt

An online image purports to show the beheading of a Croatian hostage held by Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate.

It is the first such killing of a foreign captive in Egypt since the extremists set up a branch there.

The killing of the 30-year-old oil and gas surveyor will rattle companies with expatriate workers in Egypt and cast a cloud over President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s attempts to boost international investment to revive the economy, battered by years of turmoil.

The still image, shared by IS sympathisers on social media, appeared to show the body of Tomislav Salopek, a married father of two, wearing a beige jumpsuit looking like the one he had worn in a previous video. A black flag used by IS and a knife were planted in the sand next to him.

The photo carried a caption in Arabic that said Salopek was killed “for his country’s participation in the war against the Islamic State”, and after a deadline had passed for the Egyptian government to meet their demands.

The picture also contained an inset of two Egyptian newspaper reports, with one headline declaring Croatia’s support of Egypt in its war against terrorism and extremism and another saying Croatia reiterated its support for the Kurdistan region. Croatian troops were part of the coalition forces in Iraq and still serve in the Nato-led force in Afghanistan.

In a previous video last week, the IS affiliate set an August 7 deadline for Egyptian authorities to free “Muslim women”, a term referring to female Islamist prisoners detained in a sweeping government crackdown following the 2013 military ouster of the country’s Islamist president.

Salopek, a surveyor working with France’s CGG Ardiseis, was abducted in western Cairo last month.