The Libyan branch of the Islamic State (IS) group claimed on Thursday to have killed two Tunisian journalists who went missing in September.
In a statement released on jihadist Web sites showing images of Sofiene Chourabi and Nadhir Ktari, the group said it had “applied the law of Allah” against them.
It was not immediately possible to verify the claim.
In the statement signed by the “communication service of the province of Barqa,” the group accused the two Tunisians of having worked for “a satellite channel that fights religion.”
Barqa is the ancient name of a region in eastern Libya where the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is thought to have gained a foothold.
A picture showed the two young men alongside an armed man in fatigues, his face covered.
Chourabi, an investigative journalist and blogger who was active during Tunisia’s 2011 revolution, and Ktari, a photographer, went missing on Sept. 8 in the eastern Libyan region of Ajdabiya.
Their disappearance came after the pair, who were working in Libya without authorization, were detained by an armed group days earlier but released.
Libya has been engulfed by chaos since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed former leader Muammar Qaddafi, with two rival governments and a host of militias now vying for territory.
The Islamic State has seized swathes of Iraq and Syria, declaring a “caliphate” and committing widespread atrocities, including the beheading of Western hostages.
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