ALGIERS: The body of French tourist Herve Gourdel, who was beheaded in Algeria by militants in September, has been found by the army, security sources told AFP Thursday.

The body was found buried without the head in Akbil, where Gourdel was abducted by the Jund Al-Khilafa group, the sources said.

The army had mobilized 3,000 troops to find the 55-year-old mountain guide’s body, and launched a new search operation on Wednesday.

Excavations were carried out in Akbil and in the neighboring towns of Abu Youssef following a tip-off by a detainee, a security source said.

The search was headed by an elite army unit and aided by sniffer dogs.

Gourdel was abducted by Jund Al-Khilafa on Sept. 21, while hiking in a national park in eastern Algeria.

He was beheaded days later in a gruesome video posted online after France rejected the militants’ demand to halt airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, to which Jund Al-Khilafa had pledged allegiance. In December, the army said it had killed the leader of the militants that beheaded Gourdel.

The body of Abdelmalek Gouri, who had claimed responsibility for the Frenchman’s killing, was identified after an operation in which two other suspected militants were killed.