MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) -The video, showing the images of a French national kidnapped earlier in Algeria, is authentic, said the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as quoted by Reuters on Tuesday.
"We confirm the authenticity of the video, showing images of French hostage Herve Gourdel, kidnapped in Algeria in the region of Tizi Ozou," the ministry said in a statement.
On Monday, the video, showing the captured Frenchman, asking French President Francois Hollande to put an end to the military operation in Iraq, appeared in the internet. The man on the video says that he has been kidnapped by an armed group linked to the Islamic State (IS) extremists. The militants said that they will kill him within one day if France continues conducting airstrikes against the IS targets in Iraq.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories under its control.
Earlier in September, US President Barack Obama has announced the formation of an international coalition to fight the IS militants and authorized US airstrikes against IS targets in Syria, while continuing airstrikes in Iraq, which the United States began in August.
The IS militants have killed two US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and British aid worker David Cawthorne and uploaded the videos of the executions to YouTube in August and September.
