The Sinai branch of Islamic State (ISIS), Sinai Province, announced on Wednesday that it has executed Croatian citizen Tomislav Salopek, who it captured on July 22 in Cairo.
This marks the first execution of a Western hostage by Sinai Province, with the ruthless murder taking place in the Sinai Peninsula.
Sinai Province last Wednesday published a video in which it threatened to murder the 30-year-old the father of two within 48 hours if Egypt did not release “Muslim women” prisoners, but that deadline came and went.
In the film, Salopek read from a script and noted he was working as a topographer for a French company named Compagnie Générale de Géophysique in Cairo when he was captured.
He was reportedly abducted by armed terrorists while driving to work in a company car in Cairo, on a road that was not deemed dangerous.
Sinai Province previously went by the name Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, before pledging allegiance to ISIS earlier this year and being accepted as an official branch of the Islamist terror group.
The group has already conducted several executions, including against an Arab “Israeli spy” forced to dig his own grave, but this is the first time a Western captive has been executed by the group.
Just last month Sinai Province attacked the Italian consulate in Cairo, marking its first strike on a Western target in the country.
It has been highly active, launching numerous large-scale attacks on Egyptian soldiers in Sinai, and likewise striking an Egyptian patrol ship with a rocket last month.