ISIS threatens to kill 2 Japanese hostages unless Tokyo pays $200 million

Two Japanese hostages, one demand from ISIS: Hand over $200 million, or else.

The else being that the pair will meet the same gruesome fate as other captives held by the terrorist group, others who were shown in ISIS videos kneeling in orange jumpsuits in front of masked, black-clad men -- just like the Japanese hostages identified as Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa -- shortly before being beheaded.

In the latest video, a masked man gives the Japanese government a choice to pay $200 million -- the same amount of money Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently pledged for those "contending" with ISIS -- to free the Japanese men.
That deal holds for 72 hours, which would seem to mean sometime Friday, since the video appeared on social media Tuesday.

Another move that theoretically could change things would be if Japan's government halts its alliance with those fighting ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic State. Tokyo hasn't participated in airstrikes aimed at the Islamist extremist group, though its leaders have supported those who have, as well as the Iraqi government.

"Although you are more than 8,500 kilometers away from the Islamic State, you willingly volunteered to take part in this crusade," the masked man on the video posted Tuesday says, addressing his comments to Abe.

But Abe, who is currently visiting the Middle East, didn't seem about to bargain Tuesday.

He stood by a pledge, made in a speech Sunday in Cairo, for funding to help build "human capacities, infrastructure and so on" for those affected by ISIS' armed campaign.

"The pledge aid is very important to the refugees in need and has nothing to do with the Islamic communities or the radical militants," the Prime Minister said. "... We will contribute to the (region's) peace and stability, in cooperation with the global community."

As to the ISIS threat against two of his nation's citizens, Abe called it "unacceptable."

"I feel angry about it," he said. "I strongly urge them to immediately release the hostages without harming them."

Abe: 'Terrorists should not be forgiven'

ISIS has asked for ransoms before, and apparently has been paid them. But rarely are such demands made publicly. Even rarer -- unprecedented, in fact -- is when the militant group puts its captives on video and threatens them, then lets them go.

Instead, ISIS has made a public show out of its threatening and killings of Western hostages, starting with August's beheading of U.S. journalist James Foley.

Others' killings were similarly recorded and posted online, including American journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning and U.S. aid worker Peter Kassig.
While not participating in ground combat, both the United States and Great Britain have taken an active role in the anti-ISIS fight with airstrikes and training, arming and otherwise supporting groups -- like Iraq's military, Kurdish fighters and moderate Syrian opposition -- taking on the militants face-to-face.

That's not the case for Japan, whose post-World War II constitution allows it to use its military only for self-defense. But Tokyo is a strong ally with Western powers, like the United States, that have been singled out by ISIS.

In his remarks Tuesday in Jerusalem, Abe -- who dealt with another hostage crisis involving Islamic militants in January 2013, when 10 Japanese citizens were caught up in the terrorist seizure of a natural gas facility in Algeria -- said he had ordered Japanese officials to do the utmost to try to save the two men.