DUSHANBE, January 20, 2015, Asia-Plus – International media sources report the Islamic State (IS) group has issued a video purporting to show a militant threatening to kill two Japanese hostages unless Japan pays a ransom.
The video released Tuesday afternoon shows two hostages the militants identify as Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa.
In the video, a masked man criticizes Japan for pledging aid to countries fighting Islamic State.
He says he will kill the two kneeling men unless a $200m ransom is paid within 72 hours.
Japan”s foreign ministry reportedly told the BBC it was aware of the video, but would not comment further.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is currently in Jerusalem as part of a six-day tour of the Middle East.
On Saturday, speaking in Cairo, he pledged $2.5bn in non-military assistance to the region, with $200m in non-military aid for countries fighting Islamic State, according to the BBC. He reportedly said that the world would suffer “immeasurable” damage if terrorism spread in the region.
This is the first time the Islamic State group has threatened the Japanese.
Islamic State (IS) is a radical Islamist group that has seized large swathes of territory in eastern Syria and across northern and western Iraq. A US-led coalition is now targeting the extremists in airstrikes.
Hostages have become a key propaganda tool for Islamic State. Its brutal tactics – including mass killings and abductions of members of religious and ethnic minorities, as well as the beheadings of soldiers and journalists – have sparked fear and outrage across the world and prompted US military intervention.
The group aims to establish a “caliphate”, a state ruled by a single political and religious leader according to Islamic law, or Sharia.
Although currently limited to Iraq and Syria, IS has promised to “break the borders” of Jordan and Lebanon and to “free Palestine.” It attracts support from Muslims across the world and demands that all swear allegiance to its leader – Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Ali al-Badri al-Samarrai, better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
