Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday he is "infuriated" by
the purported beheading of journalist Kenji Goto by the Islamic State
group and vowed to hold the terror group responsible.
"I feel indignation over this immoral and heinous act of terrorism,"
Abe told reporters after convening an emergency Cabinet meeting.
"When I think of the grief of his family, I am left speechless," he said. "We are filled with deep regret."
Japan ordered heightened security precautions Sunday and said it
would persist with its non-military support for fighting terrorism.
Threats from ISIS prompted an order for tighter security at airports
and at Japanese facilities overseas, such as embassies and schools,
government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said.
He said it would be "inappropriate" to comment on the status of the Jordanian pilot.
The failure to save Goto raised fears for the life of the pilot, Lt.
Muath al-Kaseasbeh, also held by the militant group that controls about a
third of both Syria and Iraq. Unlike some earlier messages delivered in
the crisis, the video that circulated online late Saturday purporting
to show a militant beheading Goto did not mention the pilot.
Jordan renewed an offer Sunday to swap an Al Qaeda prisoner for
al-Kaseasbeh, who was seized after his F-16 crashed near ISIS' de facto
capital, Raqqa, Syria, in December.
Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani told The Associated Press
that "we are still ready to hand over" Sajida al-Rishawi, who faces
death by hanging for her role in triple hotel bombings in Jordan in
2005.
Al-Momani also said his country spared no effort to free Goto.
The slaying of Goto, a freelance reporter whose work focused on
refugees, children and other victims of war, shocked this country, which
until now had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the
militants.
With no updates for days, al-Kaseasbeh's family appealed to the
government for information on his situation. But for Goto's family and
friends, the beheading shattered any hopes for his rescue.
"Kenji has died, and my heart is broken. Facing such a tragic death,
I'm just speechless," Goto's mother Junko Ishido told reporters.
"I was hoping Kenji might be able to come home," said Goto's brother,
Junichi Goto, in a separate interview. "I was hoping he would return
and thank everyone for his rescue, but that's impossible, and I'm
bitterly disappointed."
According to his friends and family, Goto traveled to Syria in late
October to try to save Haruna Yukawa, 42, who was taken hostage in
August and who was shown as purportedly killed in an earlier video.
"He was kind and he was brave," said Yukawa's father Shoichi. "He tried to save my son."
"It's utterly heartbreaking," he said, crying and shaking. "People
killing other people -- it's so deplorable. How can this be happening?"
Abe vowed to continue providing humanitarian aid to countries
fighting ISIS. Bowing to terrorist intimidation would prevent Japan from
providing medical assistance and other aid it views as necessary for
helping to restore stability in the region, he and other officials say.
But the government spokesman, Suga, said Abe would not link the
hostage crisis to his efforts to expand Japan's military role in
"collective self-defense" with the U.S. and other allies.
The White House released a statement in which President Barack Obama
also condemned "the heinous murder" and praised Goto's reporting, saying
he "courageously sought to convey the plight of the Syrian people to
the outside world."
The White House said that while it isn't confirming the authenticity
of the video itself, it has confirmed that Goto has been murdered. Japan
also has deemed the video highly likely to be authentic, said the
defense minister, Gen Nakatani.
Highlighted by militant sympathizers on social media sites, the video
bore the symbol of the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm.
In Jordan late Saturday night, relatives and supporters of the pilot
held a candlelit vigil inside a family home in Karak, al-Kaseasbeh's
hometown in southern Jordan.
We "decided to hold this protest to remind the Jordanian government
of the issue of the imprisoned pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh," said the
pilot's brother Jawdat al-Kaseasbeh, holding picture of Muath with a
caption: "We are all Muath."
Al-Kaseasbeh's uncle, Yassin Rawashda, said the family just wants to be kept informed.
"We want to know how the negotiations are going ... in a positive
direction or not. And we want the family to be (involved) in the course
of negotiations," he said.
Jordan and Japan reportedly conducted indirect negotiations with the
militants through Iraqi tribal leaders, but late on Friday the Japanese
envoy sent to Amman to work on the hostage crisis reported a deadlock in
those efforts.
The hostage drama began more than a week ago when the militants
threatened to kill Goto and Yukawa in 72 hours unless Japan paid $200
million.
Later, the militants' demand shifted to seeking the release of
al-Rishawi, who survived the 2005 attack that killed 60 people when her
explosive belt failed to detonate in the worst terror attack in Jordan's
history.
The deadline for that exchange passed without word, leaving the
families of the pilot and journalist waiting in agony. Al-Rishawi has
close family ties to the Iraq branch of Al Qaeda, a precursor of the
Islamic State group
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