ISIL says Norwegian, Chinese captives executed

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) said in its magazine on Wednesday that it had killed a Chinese and a Norwegian captive, showing what appeared to be pictures of the dead men under a banner reading "executed."

Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday that "China strongly condemns the brutality of the killing of Chinese national." China's foreign ministry said it will "bring to justice" those responsible for executing the man's identified for the first time as Fan Jinghui, 50, a self-described "wanderer" from Beijing who once taught middle school. In September, the ministry said that one of its citizens appeared to be in ISIL captivity.

The Norwegian foreign ministry declined to comment on the claim.

In September, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said a Norwegian man had been held hostage in Syria since January and was believed to be in the hands of ISIL.

She said Norway did not intend to pay a ransom for his release. Solberg did not name the man but said he was in his 40s and had been held by several groups since he was first captured.

In its previous issue of the magazine Dabiq, ISIL showed pictures of two men it said were Norwegian and Chinese, and said their governments had "abandoned" them both, but that ransom payments could secure their release.

In its latest issue, it did not give any details about how, when or where they were killed.

The magazine also carried a photo of what it said was the improvised bomb that brought down the Russian airliner over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula last month, killing all 224 people on board.

Reuters