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President Xi Jinping has promised to fight terrorist activity after deaths of national Fan Jinghui and European Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad.China will join the war on ISIS after four of its citizens were killed by Islamist terror groups in two separate attacks this week.
The vow comes after ISIS claimed to have killed Beijing man Fan Jinghui, 50, alongside Norwegian national Ole Johan Grimsgaard-Ofstad, 48, who were feared to have been taken hostage in September.
Chinese President Xi Jinping: "China will strengthen cooperation with the international community, resolutely crack down on violent terrorist operations that devastate innocent lives and safeguard world peace and security."
He also called on the relevant departments to boost security work "outside China's borders".ISIS had earlier published pictures of the two men in two full-page posters which listed the men as 'for sale' in its propaganda publication Dabiq.
The latest issue of the group’s in-house magazine featured images purporting to show the two men shot to death after being "abandoned by kafir nations and organisations”.Xi also today condemned the "cruel and savage" attack by militants on a hotel in Mali's capital that killed more than people yesterday, including three executives from a Chinese railway company.
“With no regard for human conscience and moral baseline, the terrorist organisation still carried out this cold-blooded and violent action,” he said.
“The Chinese government strongly condemns this inhuman action and will definitely hold the perpetrators accountable.”
The announcement is grim news for ISIS - China has a vast military force with more than two million active personnel.
Gunmen shouting Islamic slogans attacked the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako yesterday, before Malian commandos stormed the building and freed 170 hostages, many of them foreigners.
The three Chinese citizens killed in the hotel attack were executives from the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp , the company said in a statement on its website."China Railway Construction Corp is deeply saddened by the deaths of the three employees, and we express our deep condolences to the victims' families and strongly condemn the atrocities committed by the terrorists," it said.
Zhou Tianxiang and Wang Xuanshang, general manager and deputy general manager of the company's international division, and Chang Xuehui, general manager of its West Africa division, were killed, the statement said.
The Foreign Ministry said four other Chinese nationals were among the rescued hostages.
A man who worked for a Belgian regional parliament and an American aid worker were also killed. Moscow said Russians were also among the victims.
Beijing has repeatedly denounced Islamist militants and urged the world to step up coordination in combating Islamic State, though it has been reluctant to get involved on theground in Syria and Iraq where the group largely operates.
The attack on the hotel was claimed by jihadist group Al Mourabitoun and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and is the latest in a series of deadly raids this year in Mali, which has battled Islamist rebels based in its desert north for years.
Speaking of the ISIS hostage killings, Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, said the government had been sent pictures and videos along with demands for ransom for the release of Mr Grimsgaard-Ofstad, who he said had been "harshly mistreated."
He added: "We have no grounds to doubt the contents of the photos that have been published."
President Erna Solberg called the killing “painful for the whole country” but stated that the country did not pay ransoms.
Neither China and Norway have joined the US-led coalition and Russia in carrying out air strikes in ISIS held territory in Syria and Iraq.
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