Japan to fight ‘until the very end’ for IS hostages as deadline passes

Japan promised Saturday not to give up “until the very end” on efforts to rescue two Japanese hostages threatened with beheading by militants demanding a $200 million ransom, after a deadline passed with no word from the captors. Militants affiliated with the Islamic State group posted an online warning Friday afternoon that the “countdown has begun” for the extremists to kill 47-year-old Kenji Goto and 42-year-old Haruna Yukawa. The extremists gave Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 72 hours to pay the ransom, and the deadline expired Friday. The hostages are believed to be held somewhere in Syria. Yasuhide Nakayama, a deputy foreign minister sent to Amman, Jordan, said he was working around the clock to coordinate efforts to save the hostages. But the fate of the two men remained unclear Saturday.

We will not rule out any possibility, and we are verifying all information thoroughly. We will not give up until the very end to rescue the two so we can go home together.

Yasuhide Nakayama, Japanese deputy foreign minister

Japan has scrambled for a way to secure the release of Goto, a journalist, and Yukawa, an adventurer. Japanese diplomats had left Syria as the civil war there escalated, adding to the difficulty of contacting the militants holding the hostages. Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said earlier the government had confirmed the identities of the two hostages despite discrepancies in shadows and other details in the ransom video that suggested it might have been altered. Japanese officials have not directly said whether they are considering paying any ransom. Japan has joined other major industrial nations in the Group of Seven in opposing ransom payments.

The situation remains severe, but we are doing everything we can to win the release of the two Japanese hostages.

Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga

Asia-Pacific islamic state