The Islamic State group said Sunday it executed one of two Japanese hostages it has been holding, in an apparent beheading branded “outrageous and unforgivable” by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The claim comes a day after the release of a video announcing the murder of security contractor Haruna Yukawa by the jihadist group which has beheaded five Western hostages since August last year.

It sought to raise the pressure on Japan by saying the fate of the other captive, freelance journalist Kenji Goto, depended on the release of an Iraqi would-be female bomber who is on death row in Jordan. “The Islamic State has carried out its threat… it has executed Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa after the expiry of the deadline given,” the jihadist group said on its Al-Bayan radio.

“The second hostage is calling on his relatives to put pressure on the (Japanese) government for the release of our sister Sajida al-Rishawi, held in the jails of the oppressors in Jordan, in exchange for his release.”

Rishawi was sentenced to death by a Jordanian court in September 2006 in connection with triple hotel bomb attacks in Amman the previous year that killed 60 people. Her name emerged Saturday in an IS video that showed Goto holding what appears to be a photograph of Yukawa’s slain body.

The video came with an audio recording in which a man claiming to be Goto says Yukawa was killed because Japan had failed to pay a $200 million ransom within a 72-hour deadline announced Tuesday. The video unleashed a tide of global revulsion while Yukawa’s father voiced horror and shock. “I thought ‘Ah, this finally happened’ and was filled with regret,” said Shoichi Yukawa.

“I went totally blank, I was only sorry… I had no words,” he said. “In my mind I wish very much that this wasn’t true.”

Abe branded the murder of Yukawa as “outrageous and unforgivable” and called for Goto’s immediate release. “I condemn it strongly and resolutely,” said the Japanese leader.

Credit: Yahoo News