Japanese prime minister calls for release of 2 ISIS hostages

(Image credit: Screenshot from Associated Press video)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe responded to the ISIS video threatening to kill two Japanese hostages unless the terrorist group receives $200 million in ransom within 72 hours.

He said Tokyo has set up an emergency committee to handle the situation.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

He also called ISIS' video "unforgivable." "The international community should not give into terrorism."

Explore More
Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.