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Online Video Purports To Show Islamic State Group Beheading Japanese Journalist Kenji Goto Japan says working closely with Jordan for release of captives held by Islamic State CAIRO (AP) — Online video purports to show Islamic State group beheading Japanese journalist Kenji Goto.

AMMAN/TOKYO - An audio message purportedly from a Japanese journalist being held by Islamic State militants said a Jordanian air force pilot also captured by the group would be killed unless an Iraqi female prisoner in Jordan was released by sunset on Thursday. The message appeared to postpone a previous deadline set on Tuesday in which the journalist, Kenji Goto, said he would be killed within 24 hours if the Iraqi was not freed. The latest audio recording, which could not be verified by Reuters, was posted on YouTube early on Thursday. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a...

Islamic State militants have affirmed through their Internet radio station that the group killed Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa.

A senior State Department official on Saturday claimed that there is “nothing religious” about the Islamic State’s reported execution of a Japanese hostage. Rick Stengel, an under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, took to Twitter to condemn the killing of Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa, who has been held for ransom by the terror group along with Japanese freelance reporter Kenji Goto. “Brutal criminal murder of Japanese citizen #Haruna Yukawa by the terrorist group #Daesh,” Stengel tweeted after IS released video of the killing. “Nothing religious about it.” Stengel’s apparent refusal to acknowledge that IS’s radical Islamic...

Showing the familiar sight of fearful men kneeling in orange jumpsuits in the desert, the latest footage of Jihadi John caused despair across the world when it appeared this week. In the latest clip, the Islamic State enforcer demanded a $200million ransom to free Japanese men Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, giving them just 72 hours to live. But as the deadline approached the Japanese public responded with a show of defiance by creating dozens of darkly comic internet memes mocking the deranged ISIS killer. In the pictures, which have been widely shared online, the masked murderer is seen using...

FOX News reported that ISIS announced the hostages were dead. A tweet from a Twitter account linked to ISIS said the hostages had been killed “because of Japan’s choices.” The tweet, on the same one that previously posted the countdown clock, warned that a new video was “being sent to production.”

The deadline imposed by ISIS for Japan to pay $200 million to free two captives passed, starting what the terrorist group called a countdown clock on Friday, even as questions swirled about the authenticity of the initial tape and whether the pair is even alive. A tweet from a Twitter account linked to ISIS said the hostages had been killed "because of Japan's choices." The tweet, on the same one that previously posted the countdown clock, warned that a new video was "being sent to production." Intelligence sources told Fox News the claim the hostages had been killed could not...

Japan's Prime Minister vowed Tuesday to save the lives of two Japanese hostages, one a freelance journalist and the other a soldier for hire, threatened with beheading in an online video purportedly released by the Islamic State terror group. In the video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm and posted on militant websites associated with the extremist group, a militant threatened to kill the men unless a $200 million ransom was paid within 72 hours. If confirmed to be from Islamic State, better known as ISIS, the video would mark the first public demand...

A video distributed Saturday on the Internet showed what appears to be a Japanese hostage saying that a fellow Japanese captive had been executed and outlining a new militant demand for his release. In the video, the hostage, a man identified as Kenji Goto, a Japanese journalist, appears to be holding a photo of his countryman, Haruna Yukawa, who has been beheaded. The case has drawn a great deal of attention in Japan and spawned a crisis for the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had vowed to do what he could to save the two men. Abe said...