TOKYO — The Japanese government expressed outrage at an image released Saturday that purported to show the decapitated body of one of two Japanese hostages captured by Islamic State militants and President Obama condemned what he called a “brutal murder.”
The kidnappers had threatened to kill the men if a Friday deadline had passed for a $200 million ransom from Japan. The United States and Japanese governments had said earlier that they were working to authenticate the video containing the image.
SITE Intelligence, a well-known organization that tracks jihadist propaganda, said that it believed it was authentic. But Al Furqan, an ISIS-linked website that has in the past posted videos of the group’s beheadings, had not released any video or message confirming the killing by midday Saturday.
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Japan paid to free kidnapped citizens in at least one previous case, in 1999, spending $3 million to secure the release of four mining experts held in Kyrgyzstan. Japanese officials never specified whether they were willing to pay any ransom to the Islamic State.
Reporting was contributed by Rukmini Callimachi from San Diego; Hisako Ueno from Tokyo; Eric Schmitt from Washington; Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Rick Gladstone from New York; Anne Barnard, Mohammad Ghannam and Hwaida Saad from Beirut, Lebanon; and Rod Nordland from Amman, Jordan.
