Beheading of French tourist: Algeria sends 3000 soldiers to hunt down ISIS-linked jihadist group

About 3000 Algerian troops have been deployed in the Kabylia region, about 100 kilometres east of Algiers, to recover the body of French tourist, Pierre Herve' Gourdel, who was beheaded on Wednesday in a video posted online by a local jihadist group affiliated to the Islamic state.

France’s defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said on Thursday that Algerian forces are hunting for the Muslim extremists.

After kidnapping Gourdel who was mountaineering in the Djura Djura mountains of northern Algeria on Sunday, the ISIS-affiliated jihadist group, Jund al-Khilifa on Monday, via a video, demanded that France stopped its air strikes against IS in Iraq and gave a 24-hour deadline. They eventually beheaded him on Wednesday in a video posted online.

Jean-Yves Le Drian also said France, which has limited airstrikes so far to Iraq, would continue to evaluate whether to extend them to Syria as the United States has done to thwart the extremists’ advances. He said French jets were in flight as he spoke.

The Algerian military said a massive search for the “criminals” was underway and would continue until “they were totally eliminated and the country was purified of their abject acts.”

For its part, the Algerian government reiterated its commitment last night to protecting foreign residents living inside the country.

Even as France mourns its beheaded citizen, the country went ahead to carry out a fresh round of air strikes in Iraq on Thursday morning, renewing its determination to fight Islamic State jihadists.

At a cabinet meeting, President Francois Hollande pledged "determination, composure and vigilance" in the face of jihadi threats and announced that flags nationwide would be flown at half-mast for three days from Thursday to mourn the loss of the 55-year-old mountaineer.