IS again kills foreign hostages

The Islamic State jihadist group yesterday said it has killed a Chinese and a Norwegian hostage, two months after it had demanded a ransom for the pair's release.

The group's English-language Dabiq magazine featured graphic photos of what appeared to be the bloodied bodies of Chinese hostage Fan Jinghui and Norwegian Ole-Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad.

The bodies were pictured adjacent to photos of the blindfolded captives apparently taken just before their execution-style killings.

A stamp-like caption overlaid on the full-page photo read, "Executed after being abandoned by the kafir (disbeliever) nations and organisations." It was unclear how they were killed, but their heads were bloodied by apparent gunshot wounds.

The Norwegian prime minister's office said the photos "seem to show that the hostage Ole-Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstead was executed. We are still verifying it."

It was the 12th edition of IS's publication, one of many branches of the jihadist organisation's multilingual media machine.

The magazine's cover photo featured what appeared to be French aid workers at the scene of Friday's bomb and gun attacks in Paris that killed 129 people and were claimed by IS.

The caption read "Just Terror".

In 2014, IS declared a self-styled "caliphate" across territory in Iraq and Syria where it imposes its extreme interpretation of Islamic law.

It has used its magazine and other media arms to publicise its gruesome murders, including the beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig and others.

Norwegian authorities said Grimsgaard-Ofstad was abducted January shortly after his arrival in Syria. And China's foreign ministry acknowledged in September that IS was probably holding one of its citizens.