By DANIELLA DIAZ
President Barack Obama on Saturday condemned the “brutal murder” of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
A video released Tuesday revealed the terror group based in Syria and Iraq kidnapped Yukawa and another Japanese citizen, Kenji Goto, and were threatening to behead them within 72 hours if they didn’t receive a $200 million ransom.
Another video released Saturday by alleged ISIL militants, and deleted soon after, showed that Yukawa had been killed.
“Our condolences today are with the people of Japan for their terrible loss,” the White House statement said. “We renew our call for the immediate release of Kenji Goto and all other remaining hostages. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our ally Japan and applaud its commitment to peace and development in a region far from its shores.”
Earlier Saturday, the National Security Council released a statement saying that the intelligence community was working to confirm the authenticity of the latest video.
Saturday evening, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel released a statement calling for the remaining hostage to be released.
“ISIL’s inhumanity stands in sharp contrast to the generous humanitarian aid Japan has provided to the Iraqi and Syrian people in recent months, and their continued barbarism only serves to strengthen our global coalition’s shared resolve to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL,” Hagel said.
Yukawa was a “42-year-old adventurer fascinated by war” and Goto is a 47-year-old freelance journalist, according to the Associated Press. Japanese officials are still trying to secure the release of Goto.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called the murder “outrageous and unforgivable,” the AP reported.
ISIL has previously released videos claiming responsibility for, and in some cases showing, the murders of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig and Britons Alan Henning and David Haines.
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