CAIRO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Islamic State released a video on Sunday
purporting to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians
kidnapped in Libya, violence likely to deepen Cairo's concerns over
security threats from militants thriving in the neighboring country's
chaos.Egypt's state news agency MENA quoted the spokesman for the
Coptic Church as confirming that 21 Egyptian Christians believed to be
held by Islamic State were dead.In the video, militants in black
marched the captives, dressed in orange jump suits, to a beach the group
said was near Tripoli. They were forced down onto their knees, then
beheaded.
The video appeared on the Twitter feed of a website that supports
Islamic State, which has seized parts of Iraq and Syria and has also
beheaded Western hostages.A caption on the five-minute video read: "The people of the cross, followers of the hostile Egyptian church."Thousands
of Egyptians have traveled to Libya in search of jobs since an uprising
at home in 2011, despite advice from their government not to go to a
country sliding into lawlessness.Before the killings, one of the
militants stood with a knife in his hand and said: "Safety for you
crusaders is something you can only wish for."President Abdel
Fattah al-Sisi called a seven-day mourning period and an urgent meeting
of Egypt's top military commanders, state television reported.The
Coptic Church said it was confident the Cairo government would seek
justice. Al Azhar, the center of Islamic learning in Egypt, said no
religion would accept such "barbaric" acts.The families of the
kidnapped workers had urged Cairo to help secure their release. In the
southerly Minya Governorate, relatives screamed and fainted upon hearing
news of the deaths.Link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/15/isis-libya-video_n_6688376.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592
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