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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Japan, nations outraged as video purportedly shows beheading

Elaine Kurtenbach Associated Press

TOKYO – Japan and other nations condemned with outrage and horror the beheading purportedly by the Islamic State group of Kenji Goto, a journalist who sought through his coverage of Syria to convey the plight of refugees, children and other victims of war.

The failure to save Goto raised fears for the life of a Jordanian fighter pilot also held hostage by the extremists. Unlike earlier messages, an online video purporting to show an Islamic State group militant beheading Goto, circulated via social media late Saturday by militant sympathizers, did not mention the pilot.

Goto’s slaying shocked this country, which up to now had not become directly embroiled in the fight against the militants.

“I feel indignation over this immoral and heinous act of terrorism,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters today after convening an emergency Cabinet meeting.

In light of threats from the Islamic State group, the government ordered heightened 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, Muath al-Kaseasbeh. He was captured in December when his F-16 crashed near the de facto capital of the Islamic State group, which controls about a third of both Syria and neighboring Iraq in a self-declared caliphate.

Goto, 47, was a freelance journalist and father who braved hardship and peril to convey the suffering caused by conflict and poverty.

“Kenji has died, and my heart is broken. Facing such a tragic death, I’m just speechless,” Goto’s mother Junko Ishido told reporters.

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

According to his friends and family, Goto traveled to Syria in late October to try to save another hostage, Haruna Yukawa, who was captured by the Islamic State group in August and shown as purportedly killed in an earlier video.

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.”