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Islamic State threatens to kill Japanese hostages in new video; demands $200 million ransom in 72 hours

Japan's foreign ministry said it was checking whether video images purporting to show two Japanese hostages being held by Islamic State and demanding $200 million in ransom to save their lives were genuine.

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An image grab taken off a video on January 20, 2015, reportedly released by the Islamic State (IS) group through Al-Furqan Media, one of the Jihadist platforms used by the militant organisation on the web, allegedly shows Japanese hostages Kenji Goto (L) and Haruna Yukawa (R) in orange jumpsuits with a black-clad militant brandishing a knife as he addresses the camera in English, standing between them at an undisclosed location.
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The Islamic State armed group which holds swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria issued a video online on Tuesday purporting to show two Japanese hostages and demanding $200 million from the Japanese government to save their lives.

A knife-wielding black-clad figure, standing in a desert area along with two kneeling men wearing orange clothing, said the Japanese public had 72 hours to pressure their government to stop its "foolish" support for the US led coalition waging a military campaign against Islamic State.

"Otherwise this knife will become your nightmare," the black-clad figure said in English. He demanded "200 million" without specifying a currency, but an Arabic subtitle identified it as US dollars. The video identified the men as Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto.

The video was not dated, but on a visit to Cairo on January 17, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged around $200 million in non-military assistance for countries battling Islamic State.

Abe was in Jerusalem on Tuesday as part of a regional tour.

In Tokyo, Japan's foreign ministry said it was checking the video to see whether the footage was genuine and said that, if it was, "such a threat by taking hostages is unacceptable and we are extremely resentful."

Goto is a freelance reporter who was based in Tokyo. He has written books on AIDS and children in war zones from Afghanistan to Africa and reported for news broadcasters in Japan.

Goto met Yukawa last year and helped him travel to Iraq in June, he told Reuters in August.

Yukawa's father, Shoichi Yukawa, declined to comment, saying he was overwhelmed by the news reports.

The video resembled others distributed by Islamic State outlets in which captives were threatened or killed.

The militant, who spoke with a British accent, appeared to have the same voice as a jihadist shown threatening captives in previous Islamic State videos.

Japan's foreign ministry said it was checking whether video images purporting to show two Japanese hostages being held by Islamic State and demanding $200 million in ransom to save their lives were genuine.

It added that if they were, "such a threat by taking hostages is unacceptable and we are extremely resentful."

Japan would, with other countries, make maximum efforts to free the two Japanese if they were in fact being held hostage, a foreign ministry spokesman said by telephone, but he made no comment on the ransom demand.

Earlier Islamic State militants had released a video purporting to show the beheaded of British aid worker David Haines, US hostage Steven Sotloff, American journalist James Foley, US aid worker and Indiana native Peter Kassig.

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