Cairo: The Egyptian Orthodox Church confirmed late Sunday that the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians abducted by the Islamic State (IS) militant group in Libya have been executed by the militants, Xinhua reported, citing Egypt's state-run MENA news agency.

"We watched the painful video. We can confirm (that) the slain were our kidnapped sons in Libya," spokesman for the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt, Polis Halim, was quoted by MENA as saying.