Jihadi militants with links to the Islamic State (IS) have beheaded a French tourist they kidnapped last Sunday in Algeria.

The group, which calls itself Jund al-Khilafah, or “Soldiers of the Caliphate”, kidnapped 55-year-old Hervé Gourdel while he was walking in the the mountains of the Kabylie region, near Algiers, and threatened to kill him within 48 hours unless France halted its air strikes on IS territory.

However, French President Francois Hollande did not acquiesce to their demands and continued with the military operation alongside the US, which it began last week.

French and Algerian forces launched a military search and recover operation, but the militants released a video of the execution online before he could be found.

In a speech to the French nation, Hollande confirmed the death of one of its citizens at the hands of “terrorists” in Algeria.