Algerian village reacts to news of Frenchman kidnapped nearby
- 10 years ago
Somewhere in these mountains of Algeria, east of Algiers, a Frenchman may be held kidnapped.
He was snatched Sunday while driving through the mountains near the village of Ait Ouabane.
His abductors are the Caliphate Soldiers, a splinter group of Islamic State.
They've released a video threatening to execute Herve Gourdel, a tourist from Nice, over France's involvement in a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.
Algeria's military fought a brutal decade-long war in the 1990's against Islamist militants.
But attacks now are rare in this North African state.
Gourdel's kidnapping is one of the first abductions of a foreigner by militants here since the end of that war.
Residents of Ait Ouabane just can't imagine that a kidnapping happened right in their midst.
(SOUNDBITE) (French) HAMID, 45 YEAR OLDS VILLAGER, SAYING:
"Our village is safe. Nobody enters the village without permission. This information is completely fake."
(SOU
He was snatched Sunday while driving through the mountains near the village of Ait Ouabane.
His abductors are the Caliphate Soldiers, a splinter group of Islamic State.
They've released a video threatening to execute Herve Gourdel, a tourist from Nice, over France's involvement in a U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State.
Algeria's military fought a brutal decade-long war in the 1990's against Islamist militants.
But attacks now are rare in this North African state.
Gourdel's kidnapping is one of the first abductions of a foreigner by militants here since the end of that war.
Residents of Ait Ouabane just can't imagine that a kidnapping happened right in their midst.
(SOUNDBITE) (French) HAMID, 45 YEAR OLDS VILLAGER, SAYING:
"Our village is safe. Nobody enters the village without permission. This information is completely fake."
(SOU