By Libya Herald reporters.
Beida/Benghazi, 27 April 2015:
The five-member Cyrenaica TV crew kidnapped near Ajdabiya nearly nine months ago are reported to . . .[restrict]have been beheaded by the Islamic State (IS).
Headless bodies are reported to have been found following the arrest at the Libya-Egyptian border crossing at Musaid of an Egyptian said to be a member of IS. According to a lawyer connected to the TV station, the man confessed to involvement in the killing of the five who were seized at a fake checkpoint near Ajdabiya on 5 August. They were on their way back to the town, travelling on the desert road, after filming the inauguration of the House of Representatives in Tobruk.
Details of the killings are sketchy. According to a report, the bodies were found near Beida this morning following the confession. But it is also reported that DNA tests carried out in Egypt from samples from one of the bodies have already shown him to be a member of the crew, the Egyptian cameraman.
Another report has the bodies found near Derna. A further one says that two members of IS were captured and confessed to the killings.
However, a staff member with Cyrenaica TV told the Libya Herald today that the station believed the reports to be true. Deeply distressed and angry, he said he could not talk any more.
There has been no statement from IS.
At the time of their abduction, it was said that the five had been taken by Ansar Al-Sharia, not IS. If so, and they have now been murdered by IS, it would confirm reports of a growing interaction between the two.
Cyrenaica TV is owned by Ibrahim Jadhran.
The five are named are:
- Abdussalam Al-Kahala
- Younis Al-Gamoudi
- Khaled Al-Hamil
- Younis Al-Sal
- Mohamed Galal (Egyptian)
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