Alleged IS message threatens Jordan, Japan hostages

TOKYO — An online message purportedly from the Islamic State group warned yesterday that a Japanese hostage and Jordanian pilot the extremists are holding have less than “24 hours left to live”.

The message, posted online yesterday afternoon, again demanded the release of Sajida Al Rishawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for her involvement in a 2005 terror attack that killed 60 people. It also mentioned Jordanian pilot First Lieutenant Mu’ath Al Kaseasbeh, who is a captive of the Islamic State.

The video matched a message released over the weekend, though neither bore the logo of the Islamic State’s Al Furqan media arm. The weekend video showed a still photo of the hostage, 47-year-old Kenji Goto, holding what appeared to be a photo of the body of another Japanese hostage, Mr Haruna Yukawa.

The Associated Press could not independently verify either video. However, several militant websites affiliated with the Islamic State group referenced the video and posted links to it late yesterday afternoon.

A Japanese envoy in Jordan, Deputy Foreign Minister Yasuhide Nakayama, earlier expressed hope that the two hostages would return home “with a smile on their faces”. He said he believed there were firm ties between Japan and Jordan.

“I hope we can all firmly work hard and join hands to cooperate, and for the two countries (Japan and Jordan) to cooperate, in order for us to see the day when the Jordanian pilot and our Japanese national Mr Goto can both safely return to their countries with a smile on their faces,” he told reporters late on Monday night after another day of crisis talks in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

It was the first time a Japanese official had mentioned Al Kaseasbeh, who has been held by the Islamic State after his plane crashed in December. It was not clear when the pilot’s possible release had entered the picture.

Freelance journalist Kenji Goto was seized in late October in Syria, apparently while trying to rescue 42-year-old Yukawa, who was captured by the militants last summer.

Japanese officials have indicated they are treating the video released over the weekend as authentic and thus accepting the likelihood that Mr Yukawa was killed.

Securing the release of Al Rishawi would be a major propaganda coup for the Islamic State and would allow the group to reaffirm its links with Al Qaeda in Iraq.

The issue of a prisoner swap is sensitive, given Jordan’s concern over the pilot, while Mr Nakayama emerged from the Japanese Embassy yesterday with no new updates. AP