Islamic State group holds two Japanese men hostage

The Islamic State group threatened to kill two Japanese hostages unless they receive $200 million in 72 hours. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated that the hostages lives are the top priority. Abe and other Japanese officials declined to comment on whether or not they would pay the ransom for captives Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa. Their kidnapping also immediately recalled the 2004 beheading of a Japanese backpacker in Iraq. Tuesday’s video, identified as being made by the Islamic State group’s al-Furqan mirrored other hostage threats from the past. Japanese officials said they would thoroughly analyze the tape to verify its authenticity. In the video, the two men are dressed in orange jumpsuits with a rocky hill in the background, a masked militant dressed from head to toe in black standing between them. The scene bears a resemblance to others featuring the five hostages previously beheaded by the Islamic State group, which controls a third of Iraq and Syria.