ISIS Affiliate Threatens to Execute Croatian Hostage in New Video
In a video released Wednesday, a group associated with ISIS threatened to execute a Croatian hostage on Friday unless Egypt releases a group of Muslim women from prison. The hostage identified himself in the video as Tomislav Salopek, a 30-year-old father of two, and said his captors are members of Wilayat Sinai, an ISIS-affiliated militant group based in the Sinai Peninsula.
“They want to substitute me with the Muslim women arrested in Egyptian prisons,” he said, adding that if the women aren’t released within 48 hours, “the soldiers from Wilyat Sina will kill me.”
The Associated Press reports that Croatia’s Foreign Ministry confirmed last month that a Croatian with the initials T.S. was kidnapped by armed gunman as he drove to work in Cairo. According to Mashable, Salopek worked as a surveyor for CGG Ardiseis, a French oil and gas company.
As Liam Stack of the New York Times notes, the video was released the day before Egypt was set to celebrate the opening of a new lane in the Suez Canal.
