Islamic State’s affiliate in Egypt’s Sinai province has circulated an image online that purports to show the beheaded body of a Croatian man abducted in the desert hinterland of Cairo in July. The image bears some of the hallmarks of the previous killings of foreign hostages by Isis in Iraq and Syria. The purported killing could mark a shift in tactics for the Isis affiliate in Egypt, which until now has focused the majority of its attacks on the Egyptian military and security forces. Tomislav Salopek, 30, was abducted by armed men early on the morning of 22 July about 50km from Cairo, according to an early official account of the kidnapping. The gunmen stopped the car on a desert road, pulled his Egyptian driver out and drove away, the account said. The car was later found nearby. Salopek worked in Egypt as a subcontractor with the French geophysical services company CGG. A spokesman from the Egyptian interior ministry’s press office said: “We have seen this news online but are currently making our own checks. If we confirm that it is indeed true, we will inform the media through a statement.” Croatia’s Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm Salopek’s death, but the country’s prime minister, Zoran Milanovic, will be addressing the nation later on Wednesday. President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said in a statement that she is cancelling all her pre-arranged activities for the day. A statement released with the still image accused Croatia of participating in “the war against the Islamic State”. It comes a week after the Isis affiliate, known as Sinai Province after the region in which it is based, threatened to kill Salopek within 48 hours unless Egypt’s government freed “Muslim women” from prison. Salopek appeared in the video footage in a yellow jumpsuit, kneeling in front of a masked militant and articulating his captors’ demands in English. The still image released on Thursday and shared by IS supporters on social media, appeared to show the body of Salopek, a married father of two, wearing a jumpsuit resembling the one he had worn in the previous video. A black flag used by the Islamic State 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 his captors’ demands. The picture also contained an inset of two Egyptian newspaper reports, with one headline declaring Croatia’s support for Egypt in its war against terrorism and another saying Croatia reiterated its support for the Kurds, who have been battling the IS group in Syria and Iraq. Croatian troops fought in the US-led coalition in Iraq and still serve in the NATO-led force in Afghanistan. Sinai Province emerged in 2014 when an existing insurgent group called Ansar Beit al-Maqdis proclaimed its affiliation with Isis and its leaders in Iraq and Syria. The group has claimed responsibility for dozens of attacks that have killed hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police. Last year, the group claimed it had killed an American oil worker named William Henderson who disappeared in a carjacking in Egypt’s Western Desert. The group released images of Henderson’s passport and identification cards, but did not release any Isis-style footage purporting to show his death. In February, Isis-backed militants in Libya executed 21 Coptic Christians. In response, Egypt launched airstrikes in Libya.
ISIS-Sinai kidnapped a Muslims engineering outside Cairo in July, threatening to behead him if its demands for the immediate release of all female Muslim political prisoners was not met: reports this morning suggest that it has carried out its threat. The selecting of a Croat was probably a calculated move as it will increase the level of hostility between Croats and Croatian in eastern Bosnia where the situation is increasingly delicate. Tomislav Salopek came from the town of Vrpolje, five miles north of the Muslims/Bosnian border.