ISIS militants posted an online clock warning a deadline for two Japanese hostages. The fate of the Japanese hostages still remains unknown. Read more on the story after the jump!
The ISIS online clock deadline has currently passed. Islamic State gave the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a 72-hour deadline, which has now expired, to pay a $200 million dollar ransom in exchange for the two hostages. There is no word on the status of the Japanese hostages who are journalist Kenji Goto and his friend Haruna Yukawa. The ISIS Islamic extremists posted a video on Tuesday warning Japan that it had 72 hours to save the lives of Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa. The ISIS militants uploaded an online video threatening Japan that the “countdown has begun” and a clock of very gruesome images of other hostages who have been beheaded by the Islamic State group were shown. American aid worker Peter Kassig, and British aid workers Alan Henning and David Haines were all beheaded on camera by ISIS. In all of their execution videos, each man wore the same orange jumpsuits Goto and Yukawa were seen wearing in the video.
Islamic State said that a statement would be released soon on the hostages. Japan’s efforts to pay the ransom and free the two men remains unclear as well. Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga, said Japan was analyzing the video, but did not have a plan to save the men. Yukawa, 42, disappeared in Syria, in August, and Goto, 47, was captured in October. Goto told one of his guides that he was on a mission to find his friend Yukawa. Before crossing into Syria, he recorded a video in Japanese saying, “because it’s very dangerous, whatever happens, I will not blame the people of Syria…I urge the Japanese people not to demand Syrians to take responsibility. But I will definitely come back alive.” Goto’s mother, Junko Ishido, made a plea for her son’s life, she said, “time is running out. Please, Japanese government, save my son’s life…my son is not an enemy of the Islamic State…my son felt he had to do everything in his power to try to rescue a friend and acquaintance.”
