Man Behind Frenchman Beheading Is Killed

The head of the Algerian Islamic terrorist group that beheaded a French hiker has been killed, Algeria’s ministry of defense announced Tuesday. Gouri Abdelmale, the leader of Jund al Khilafa, was killed by Algerian special forces in an ambush near Boumerde, which is about 30 miles east of Algiers. French hiker Hervé Gourdel was captured and beheaded in late September by Jund al Khilafa, a group that has sworn allegiance to ISIS. Abdelmale is a former regional head of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. “This is a blow to Islamic State in Algeria—the small group has only been in existence for a couple of months,” said Algerian security analyst Anis Rahmani.