Video footage of a terror group in Egypt that pledged allegience to the Islamic State in November 2014.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of three African Christian men in eastern Libya, having published their passport pictures and photos of them bound and blindfolded on Saturday, July 18. The terrorist group released a statement on social media, claiming that the three men come from Egypt, Nigeria, and Ghana.
An anonymous resident said that the kidnapping took place in Noufliyah, an ISIS stronghold southeast of the city of Sirte, according to Reuters.
The kidnapping of the men are the most recent attacks in a string of kidnappings that have been occurring amongst Christians in the Middle East.
A Catholic clergyman who pastors the Church of St. Philip the Apostle, Melkite Father Tony Boutros, and Muslim driver Al-Said Abdun, were abducted in Shahba by assaulters who have not been identified after celebrating Mass on July 12, a Britain-based watchdog stated. They have been reported missing by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. According to the Catholic Herald, Boutros is the 8th victim of clerical abduction in Libya.
Christian civilians have also been under attack, with four Christians having been abducted in Baghdad in late June, resulting in two deaths.
On July 9, member of Iraq's parliament Imad Youkhana, who is also a Christian, denounced the violence that has been inflicted on Christians in a statement and appealed to Iraqi authorities to offer greater measures of protection for its Christian citizens.
Chaldean Catholic leaders in Iraq made similar comments in a statement, defending Christians in the middle east.
