Responding to Islamic State's call to target Westerners, Islamist militants in Algeria have abducted a French mountain guide and are threatening to behead him unless France stops its offensive against the group.
According to ABC News, in a new video that recently appeared online, two masked and armed militants are seen with a man who describes himself as a 55-year-old French national Herve Gourdel.
One of the militants representing the IS fighters in Algeria says in the video that the group is responding to the message of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and his spokesperson.
The militant further said that French President Francois Hollande, the head of the French criminal government, had 24 hours to stop its offensive against the Islamic State or witness the beheading of Gourdel.
Meanwhile, the French Foreign Ministry released a statement today confirming that a French national had been kidnapped Sunday in Algeria.
The Ministry said in the statement that every measure is being expanded to find Gourdel, adding that the services of the state are mobilized and no hypothesis has been ruled out, the report added.