Croatian Policy 'Not to Blame' for Salopek's Fate

Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic on Thursday said that Croatia's role in the global alliance against the Islamic State was not a factor behind ISIS's - unconfirmed - killing of Tomislav Salopek.

"Everyone is potentially targeted by terrorists and therefore it is important to oppose it. We can't be at the forefront of this battle but we won't hide 'under the table'. We are part of the coalition. Against such a global terrorism we must fight," she said.

Croatia "can't hope that someone else will be struck [by terrorists]", she added.

"It doesn't work that way. The more you hide, the more vulnerable you are," she noted, saying that "Islamic State has no homeland, has no religion, but uses terror to fulfill its goals".

Her statement came after ISIS published an audio message on Thursday in which the Islamist terrorists claimed to have killed a citizen of "a country participating in a war against the Islamic state".

Pusic again repeated that Salopek's death cannot be confirmed and that although Croatia's security services are working to establish the authenticity of a photograph of a decapitated body, it was possible that they "will never be able to fully confirm" his death.

She said that while Croatia continued to work on helping locate Salopek, Egypt would continue with its rescuing mission. Besides the Egyptian authorities, she thanked the efforts that France has taken to help find Salopek.

Pusic also revealed that eight days after Salopek was kidnapped near Cairo, a group contacted the French company Compagnie Générale de Géophysique, where he worked as a topographer, demanding a ransom.

"Thus, it was concluded that perhaps these are two groups, one that kidnapped him and one that present itself as such," she...