The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has strongly condemned the killing of a Chinese and a Norwegian citizen by the Daesh terrorist group, saying that the perpetrators must be brought to justice.
In a statement on Thursday, the UNSC described the execution of Chinese Fan Jinghui and Norwegian Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, who had been held captives by Daesh, as a “heinous and cowardly” show of brutality by the terror group.
“These crimes once again demonstrate the brutality of ISIL, which is responsible for thousands of crimes and abuses against people from all faiths, ethnicities and nationalities, and without regard to any basic value of humanity,” the statement said, using another acronym for Daesh.
The 15-member council emphasized that Daesh must be defeated and that “the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out.”
They emphasized that such continued acts of barbarism “do not intimidate” people, “but rather stiffen their resolve,” underlining the need to bring the perpetrators of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice.
The council also called for a common effort among governments and institutions to confront “ISIL, al-Nusra Front and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with al-Qaeda.”
Daesh published graphic photos of what appeared to be the bodies of Fan and Grimsgaard-Ofstad in its English-language Dabiq magazine on Wednesday. The two were killed two months after Daesh demanded a ransom for their release. The hostages were apparently shot to death.
It is not clear how, when and where the two men had been captured, but the last post on Grimsgaard-Ofstad’s Facebook page on January 24 shows that he had entered Idlib, Syria, on his way to Hama.
Daesh, which currently controls parts of eastern Syria and Iraq’s northern and western regions, has already decapitated some foreign hostages, including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, and US aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, and released gruesome videos and pictures.
