Story highlights Gouri Abdelmalek led Jund al Khilafa, which killed French hiker Herve Gourdel in September

Jund al Khilafa, an Algerian group that splintered from al Qaeda, linked to ISIS

Algerian military says it killed Abdelmalek and two other people in city of Isser on Monday

(CNN) The Algerian military has killed the leader of an Algerian terror group that beheaded French hiker Herve Gourdel earlier this year, the state-run Algeria Press Service reported Tuesday.

Gouri Abdelmalek, leader of Jund al Khilafa, and two other militants were killed in the Algerian city of Isser after the military set an unspecified "trap," for them, APS reported Tuesday, citing Algeria's defense ministry.

The report of Abdelmalek's death comes roughly three months after Jund al Khilafa -- a small Islamist group formerly linked to al Qaeda -- published a video showing the beheading of Gourdel in what the group said was a display of support to al Qaeda's rival ISIS.

Gourdel, 55, was hiking in central Algeria's Djudjura National Park when he was abducted in September. Jund al Khilafa, having just declared allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), then published a video of Gourdel's beheading on September 24.

The video was titled, "A message of blood for the French government." The group said it was responding to an appeal by ISIS spokesman Muhammad al-Adnani to kill "the spiteful and filthy French" because of their support for military action against the group in Iraq.

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