ISIL ‘killed Norwegian, Chinese captives’

As reported in 'The Japan News' : The Associated Press This file combination of undated photos taken from the ISIL militant group’s online magazine Dabiq purports to show Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad from Oslo, left, and Fan Jinghui from Beijing.

The Associated Press CAIRO (AP) — The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group said Wednesday that it has killed Norwegian and Chinese captives after earlier demanding ransoms for the two men. The extremist group published two images of the men in the second-to-last page of its English-language magazine, saying they had been “executed after being abandoned by kafir nations and organizations.” “Kafir” is the Arabic word for infidel. The Norwegian man had been identified as Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, 48, a graduate student in political philosophy from Porsgrunn, south of Oslo. The Chinese man had been identified as Fan Jinghui, 50, a self-described “wanderer” from Beijing who once taught middle school. The militants did not say when or where the two were captured when announcing their captivity in a previous issue of the magazine, which showed them in yellow jumpsuits. However, the last post on Grimsgaard-Ofstad’s Facebook page, dated Jan. 24, said he had arrived in Idlib, Syria, on his way to Hama. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a press conference that the government cannot confirm the killing, but said “we have no reasons to doubt it.”Speech