Jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State beheaded 55-year-old Frenchman Herve Gourdel who was abducted in Algeria on Sunday while hiking at Djurdjura National Park, a major tourist attraction. A video, titled “A Message with Blood to the French Government”,  was posted showing his execution by Jund al-Khilifa (“Caliphate Soldiers”). The group was created at around 2011 and has been linked to al-Qaeda.

The video resembled the style of previous videos by the Islamic State showing the beheadings of U.S. citizens James Foley, Steven Sotloff and British David Haines. A clip of Mr. Hollande at a press conference announcing air strikes quickly makes way to a footage showing Mr. Gourdel on his knees. This time he isn’t wearing a Guadanamo-styled orange uniform and there are four masked gunmen behind him.

The Frenchman briefly expresses his love for his family and then criticizes the “French criminal crusaders” against Muslims in Algeria, Mali and Iraq. The masked jihadists say that Gourdel is being sacrificed to “avenge the victims and Algeria” and to support the caliphate proclaimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

He was beheaded following France’s rejection of the group’s 24-hour ultimatum to halt its participation in U.S.-led air raids in Iraq. The French government was the first to join Washington in its air-strikes.

Following the beheading of a French citizen, French President Francois Hollande pledged that France would not give in to blackmail and labeled the group’s beheading of the hostage as “cruel and cowardly.” He told the U.N. General Assembly that “the fight against terrorism must continue and be stepped up.”

Gourdel’s Facebook page. The Frenchman has been described as an avid hiker