Gouri Abdelmalek, the leader of the terrorist group Jund El Khilafah, and his deputy, Torfi Rabah, were

Gouri Abdelmalek, the leader of the terrorist group Jund El Khilafah, and his deputy, Torfi Rabah, were sentenced to death in absentia by the criminal court of Boumerdes. The two suspects were convicted, along with twelve of their acolytes. Authorities accused the group of also having sponsored and participated in several attacks, including one that resulted in the death of two Army officers in Keddara in May of 2012. Reportedly, they were responsible, on 22 September 2014, of kidnapping a 55-year-old French mountaineering guide, Hervé Gourdel, who was beheaded two days later by Jund al-Khilafah, which announced the group's split from Al-Qaeda and an oath of allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. On 22 December 2014, Abdelmalek Gouri and two other militants were killed by the Algerian army in a military operation in Issers.