Reports from Libya on Tuesday claim that the Islamic State (Isis) militants have reportedly beheaded five crew members of a private TV channel and dumped their decapitated bodies in the city of Bayda.
It is reported that the five TV journalists were employees of the television channel 'Barqa', which is the Arabic name for the Libyan region Cyrenaica.
Hatem al-Aribi, a spokesperson for the internationally recognised Libyan government, told The Associated Press that the bodies were found near the eastern city of Bayda, which is located 80km from Derna, an Isis-controlled area.
After Tripoli was taken over by Islamist government, the ousted government has set up its executive unit near Bayda and its parliament in Tobruk.
Al-Aribi says that the five, from the Barqa TV network, were kidnapped in August while travelling to Ajdabiya, located north-east of the country, after covering the opening of the parliament in Tobruk.
One of the executed TV journalists has been identified as Egyptian cameraman Mohamed Galal, Youm7 reported. There is still no clarity as to why the Libya TV channel crew members were beheaded.
Neven Galal, the sister of the Egyptian victim, told The Cairo Post that she suspected it was the Islamic State (Isis), which was behind her brother's 'kidnapping' and eventual murder.
In October 2014, the Islamic State militants took control of numerous government buildings, security vehicles and local landmarks in the eastern Libyan coastal city of Derna, which has a history of Islamist radicalism. Since then Isis has expanded its control over the country.
In February, the militant outfit released a video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christians. Earlier this month on 19 April, the Isis Libya again released another video in which it beheaded and even shot many Ethiopian Christians on point-blank range.
