BEIRUT // An online message purportedly from ISIL warned on Tuesday that a Japanese hostage and Jordanian pilot the extremists hold have less than “24 hours left to live.”
The message again demanded the release of Sajida Al Rishawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for involvement in a 2005 terror attack that killed 60 people. It also mentioned for the first time Jordanian pilot First Lieutenant Maaz Al Kassasbeh, who is a captive of ISIL.
Tuesday’s video matched a message released over the weekend, though neither bore the logo of ISIL’s Al Furqan media arm. The weekend video showed a still photo of Kenji Goto holding what appears to be a photo of the body of Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa.
The message says that unless the Jordanian government frees Al Rishawi within 24 hours, Mr Goto and the pilot will be killed, adding that this would be the group’s last message. The message warns any delaying tactics by the government will result in the death of both men.
Mr Goto has only “24 hours left to live and the pilot has even less,” the message said.
A Japanese envoy in Jordan, deputy foreign minister Yasuhide Nakayama, earlier expressed hope the two hostages would return home “with a smile on their faces.”
“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 own countries with a smile on their faces,” he told reporters late Monday night after another day of crisis talks in the Jordanian capital.
Japanese officials had no immediate comment on the new message.
Tuesday marked the first time a Japanese official mentioned Lt Kassasbeh, who has been held by ISIL after his Jordanian F-16 went down near the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa in December. It wasn’t immediately clear when the pilot’s possible release had entered into the negotiations.
The 26-year-old Jordanian is the first foreign military pilot to fall into the extremists’ hands since an international coalition began its aerial campaign against the Islamic State group in September. Jordan is part of the US-led coalition targeting ISIL militants in Syria.
Mr Goto, a freelance journalist, was seized in late October in Syria, apparently while trying to rescue Yukawa, 42, who was captured by the militants last summer.
The weekend message retracted a demand for payment of $200 million in ransom for the two Japanese, made in an earlier online message. It threatened to kill Mr Goto unless Al Rishawi was released.
Japanese officials have indicated they are treating the video released over the weekend as authentic and thus accepting the likelihood that Yukawa was dead.
Securing the release of Al Rishawi would be a major propaganda coup for ISIL and would allow the group to reaffirm its links to Al Qaeda in Iraq.
* Associated Press
