Algeria hunts 15 jihadists for Frenchman’s beheading
Algeria has issued arrest warrants for 15 suspects in the kidnapping and beheading of French tourist Hervé Gourdel on terrorism, kidnapping and murder charges. The Algerian army is searching for Gourdel’s body in the Djurdjura mountains.
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Top of the wanted list is Abdelmalik Gouri, the 37-year-old leader of Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), the group that broke away from Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb to swear allegiance to the Islamic State armed group fighting in Iraq and Syria.
Jund al-Khilafa claimed responsibility for Gourdel’s kidnapping and posted a video of his murder online.
Algerian security forces are also searching for Gouri’s right-hand man, Abdallak Abou Meriem.
Two more former Aqim members, Abdallak Othman el-Assimi and Abou Hayane can be identified in the video.
The army is still deployed in the Djurdjura mountains in Algeria’s Kabylia region after starting the search for Gourdel’s body and his kidnappers shortly after the killing.
Investigators have cleared Gourdel’s Algerian companions of complicity in the kidnapping but could charge them for failing to declare that they had a foreigner staying with them.
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