A Western site that monitors videos from the terrorist groups said Saturday that Islamic State had released a video claiming that one of the two Japanese captives, Haruna Yukawa, had been beheaded, but that
the ransom demands had been changed for the remaining hostage.
The report could not be independently verified, but the U.S.-based terrorist monitoring organization, SITE Intelligence Group, has received videos in the past that proved to be authentic. SITE said the video had been distributed across several Islamic State-linked Twitter accounts.
The Japanese government said it is seeking to verify the video, BBC reported. A government spokesman called the apparent execution of Yukawa "outrageous" and "unacceptable," Reuters reported.
The video included a photo of Japanese freelance journalist Kenji Goto holding a photo that purportedly showed the dead bodyof the second hostage, Yukawa.
"I am Kenji Goto Jogo," the journalist is heard to say in the video, which was directed toward his family.. "You have seen the photo of my cellmate Haruna slaughtered in the land of the Islamic Caliphate. You were warned. You were given a deadline and so my captives acted upon their words."
islamic State had demanded a $200 million ransom for the release of the two men. The 72 -hour deadline passed on Friday. Janese Prime Ministere Shinzo Abe had refused to pay a ransom.
Goto, again speaking to his family, said in the purported video released Saturday that Islamic State had changed its ransom demand and no longer wanted money.
"Their demand is easier. They are being fair. They no longer want money. So you don't need to worry about funding terrorists. They are just demanding
the release of their imprisoned sister Sajida al-Rishawi," he said.
Sajida al-Rishawi is a female suicide bomber
dispatched by al-Qaeda in Iraq to attack a hotel in Jordan in 2005, SITE reported. She survived when her explosive belt failed to detonate.
Al-Rishawi was arrested by Jordanian authorities at the time of the attack on the Radisson SAS hotel in Amman that killed 57 people, many of whom were at a wedding reception.
She was later shown on Jordanian tV confessing to participating in the attack, the BBC reports. Jordanian police said she was the wife of one of three Iraqi male suicide bombers involved in the assault.
"My husband wore one [bomb] belt and I another -- he told me how to use it," she said, explaining that he took one corner of the hotel and she took another.
"There was a wedding in the hotel. There were women and children," she said. "My husband executed the attack. I tried to detonate and it failed. I left. People started running and I started running with them."
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