Japanese PM Shinzo Abe 'speechless' over ISIS execution of hostage
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday that though intelligence experts had yet to verify a video purporting to show ISIS had executed one of two Japanese hostages, the evidence had "a high chance of being real."
The video, which surfaced Saturday, showed one of the hostages, Kenji Goto, holding an image of what appeared to be the decapitated body of the other prisoner, Haruna Yukawa. Though ISIS initially sought a $200 million ransom for the two men, the group instead offered in the latest video to swap Goto for the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, a woman sentenced to death in Jordan for a 2005 terror attack.
President Obama called Abe Sunday to offer his condolences, saying the US. stood "shoulder to shoulder" with Japan.
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Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.
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