The Islamic State group issued a new ultimatum and threatened to kill a Japanese hostage and a Jordanian pilot if an Iraqi woman imprisoned in Jordan for extremist activities is not released within 24 hours.
Japan immediately requested Jordan's help to rescue their citizen, since the first Japanese hostage was executed at the end of last week, after the expiration of the first ultimatum.
"In an extremely difficult situation, we asked Jordan for help to rescue Kenji Goto as soon as possible, that position has not changed," Japanese government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a hastily called press conference.
The new demand of the Islamic State was published on extremist websites. An image of Kenji Goto, a Japanese hostage, is shown holding a picture of captured Jordanian pilot Maz el Kasabeh, and a voiceover purporting to be Goto making new threats from the Islamic State.
A Jordanian military source told AFP that the authenticity of the video, which is attributed to the Islamic State group, is being verified.
Kenji Goto, an independent journalist, has been in the hands of extremists since the end of October. Pilot Maz el Kasabeh was captured on December 24 after the crash of his F-16 plane over Syria, where he was carrying out an attack on Islamic State positions as part of the international coalition against extremists.
In a previous video, released on January 20, Islamic State demanded a ransom of $200 million from the Japanese government within 72 hours to free two Japanese nationals. Since the demand was not met, the group announced on Saturday that Jukava had been executed and now presented new demands.
Bonus video:
