French President Francois Hollande is strongly condemning the beheading of one of his countrymen by a jihadist copycat group in Algeria as a “cruel and cowardly” act, released to the Internet on a video.  The Islamists wanted to strike back at France for this week’s air raids against Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

“France is going through an ordeal through the murder of one of its citizens, but France will never give in to blackmail,” French President Francois Hollande said before the United Nations General Assembly.

He said that French air strikes on IS targets would continue.

“We will continue to fight terrorism everywhere, notably against the group we call Islamic State, which spreads death in Iraq and Syria, pursues civilian populations, persecutes religious minorities, rapes, beheads,” President Hollande said.

The militant group Jund al-Khilafa had previously sworn loyalty to al Qaeda.  In March 2012, a gunman linked the group under its old name “al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb” killed seven people in Toulouse and Montauban in western France.

But just days ago it switched its allegiance to the rival Islamic State, which has been ruthless against its enemies in captured regions of Iraq and Syria, beheading enemies and hostages. 

55-year old Herve Gourdel was a mountain guide in the range north of Nice, France.  He had gone to Algeria to climb the Kabylie Mountains, but was abducted by Jund al-Khilafa on Sunday.