Let Japan's nighmare begin, IS warns in beheading video of journalist

TOKYO (AP)

An online video released Saturday night purported to show an Islamic State group militant beheading Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, ending days of negotiations to save the man and heightening fears for the life a Jordanian fighter pilot also held hostage.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed outrage at the video that was released on militant websites

"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 without words," he said. "The government has been doing its utmost in responding to win his release, and we are filled with deep regrets."

He vowed that Japan will not give in to terrorism and will continue to provide humanitarian aid to countries fighting the Islamic State extremists.

"I was hoping Kenji would come back alive to thank everyone who had supported him," Goto's brother Junichi Goto, told the quasi-public broadcaster NHK TV. "I am filled with sadness he couldn't do it."

Goto's mother, Junko Ishido, told NHK TV her son's death showed he was a kind gentle man, trying to save another hostage. That hostage had been shown as purportedly killed in an earlier video.

The fates of Goto and the Jordanian pilot, Lt. Muath Kaseasbeh, had been linked by the militants, but Saturday's video made no mention of the airman. Jordan's government spokesman, Mohammed al-Momani, declined comment. Earlier this week, Jordan had offered to free an al-Qaida prisoner for the pilot, but a swap never moved forward.

Saturday's video, highlighted by militant sympathizers on social media sites, bore the symbol of the Islamic State group's al-Furqan media arm.

Though the video could not be immediately independently verified by The Associated Press, it conformed to other beheading videos released by the extremists, who now control about a third of both Syria and neighboring Iraq in a self-declared caliphate.

The video, called "A Message to the Government of Japan," featured a militant who looked and sounded like a militant with a British accent who has taken part in other beheading videos by the Islamic State group. Goto, kneeling in an orange prison jumpsuit, said nothing in the roughly one-minute-long video.

"Abe," the militant says in the video, referring to the Japanese prime minister, "because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin."