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Isis threaten to kill Japanese hostage and Jordanian pilot 'within 24 hours' Isis threaten to kill Japanese hostage and Jordanian pilot 'within 24 hours'
(about 8 hours later)
Isis has reportedly threatened to kill a second Japanese hostage and a Jordanian pilot being held by the group within 24 hours. Secret talks are underway in Jordan after a video purporting to show Kenji Goto, a Japanese captive of Islamic State (Isis) militants, warned that he and a Jordanian pilot had 24 hours to live unless a would-be suicide bomber was released.
A video released entitled 'the second public message of Kenji Goto to his family and the government of Japan' features another still of the freelance journalist with an audio of a man speaking, who claims to be Mr Goto. The plight of the two captors has been granted urgent status after a new audio tape was released on Tuesday. In it Mr Goto warned that he and captured Jordanian pilot  Mu'ath al-Kasasbeh would be killed unless Jordan moved to free Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, an Iraq woman sentenced to death for her role in a suicide bomb attack in Amman, the Jordanian capital, in 2005.
The video and its contents have not been verified. A member of Jordan's parliament suggested indirect talks with Isis militants were underway. Bassam Al-Manasseer, chairman of the country’s foreign affairs committee, told Bloomberg News that the negotiations were being funnelled through religious and tribal leaders in Iraq, adding that Jordan and Japan would not negotiate directly with Isis nor accept the release of just one prisoner.
The man in the picture is holding an image purporting to show First Lieutenant Moaz Youssef al-Kasasbeh, who was captured in December. The man addresses Rinko, believed to be his wife, the Japanese Government and the people of Japan. The Raqqa Media Center released this picture of what they say is the pilot's ID shortly after his capture
He says that unless a prisoner swap for a female militant being detained in Jordan takes place, Mr Goto and the pilot will be killed in 24 hours.  "Time is now running very short," he says. It is me for her. A straight exchange." His comments mark the strongest suggestion yet  that Jordan and Japan may be poised to agree to a prisoner swap, something that would be in breach of official British and US hostage policy – though certain exceptions have been known.
"I only have 24 hours left to live and the pilot has even less." Experts have expressed surprise over the demand, which comes just days after a futile demand for $200m  (£131m). Rishawi is considered a fairly low-level al-Qaeda operative and, while her husband, Ali Hussein Shamari, played a part in killing 57 hotel guests in Amman in a suicide attack, she failed in her mission.
The message finishes: "The ball is now in the Jordanian's court."  
The Raqqa Media Center released this picture of what they say is the pilot's ID shortly after his capture Senior Japanese officials met to try to authenticate the video, public broadcaster NHK reported. Sajida al-Rishawi, pictured at Juwaida prison in Amman, in 2006
The voice was similar to an earlier recording which Tokyo believes to be of Goto. That showed him holding a picture of the body of Haruna Yukawa, who Isis say they beheaded.  The latest video comes barely 78 hours after Mr Goto was heard in a previous audio clip in which the freelance journalist suggested that his friend Haruna Yukawa, 42, had been beheaded after Isis’s 72-hour deadline for Japan for the multimillion dollar payment expired.
The audio also requested that Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi be released from a Jordanian prison. But this twin demand of sparing the Jordanian pilot as well as Mr Goto adds a complicated diplomatic twist to proceedings.
Al-Rishawi was convicted of an attempted suicide bombing of the Jordanian capital Amman in 2005, along with her husband, which killed scores of people. She survived when her belt did not detonate. The 26-year-old Jordanian is the first foreign military pilot to fall into the extremists' hands since the US-led coalition began its aerial campaign against Isis in August. Isis militants claim he was shot down by heat-seeking surface-to-air technology, though indications more likely suggest a mechanical failure in the plane.
It comes shortly after a Japanese envoy in the Jordanian capital, Amman, voiced hopes that both the Japanese journalist and the Jordanian pilot would be able to return home. Jordan is part of the controversial US-led coalition that is fighting to try and repel the advance of the Isis.
The two audios differ greatly from previous videos released by Isis, which have shown hostages in the desert and are branded with the logo of the group's media arm. Today some 200 relatives of the pilot demonstrated outside the prime minister's office in Amman, chanting anti-government slogans and urging it to meet the captors' demands.
Previous videos have made political demands, whereas ransom demands were typically made behind the scene in emails or letters. The pilot's father, Safi al-Kaseasbeh, also appealed to its government. “All people must know, from the head of the regime to everybody else, that the safety of Mu'ath means the stability of Jordan, and the death of Mu'ath means chaos in Jordan,“ he told the Associated Press.
A ransom video showing Mr Goto and Mr Yukawa is the first where the group has specifically and openly demanded money in exchange for hostages. Isis controls Syria and Iraq, but their grip within some regions appears to be waning. Kurdish peshmerga yesterday claimed victory in the Syrian border city of Kobani, marking an important breakthrough while YPG guerrillas are reportedly closing in on the Iraqi city of Mosul.
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