AMMAN
The Jordanian government "strongly" condemned on Sunday the execution of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group, saying it continued to seek information proving the safety of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasba who has also been captured by the ISIL.
"Jordan has spared no effort in attempting to protect and release the Japanese hostage," Information Minister Mohamed al-Momni was quoted as saying by Jordan's official Petra news agency.
"[ISIL] has refused all attempts by authorities to release the Japanese hostage which proves the organization's insistence on murder and terror."
Al-Momni added that Jordanian authorities were maintaining efforts to ensure the safety and release of military pilot al-Kasasba, who was captured by the ISIL in Syria in December.
A video released by ISIL-linked websites last night features a masked militant, believed to be the same militant who had carried out similar executions of foreign hostages, standing next to a kneeling Goto, the 47-year-old Japanese journalist who was kidnapped by the ISIL in Syria in October.
The video shows the militant placing a knife at Goto's neck then cuts to a still of what is said to be the beheaded body of Goto.
Goto had reportedly travelled to Syria to help release Haruna Yukawa, another Japanese national who was seized by the ISIL in August before he was also executed by the group last week.
In December, the ISIL declared it had downed a Jordanian military aircraft in the Syrian city of Raqqa and captured the pilot, who was later identified as al-Kasasba.
Last week, Jordan said it was ready to exchange al-Kasasba for Iraqi female militant Sajida Rishawi who was convicted of having involved in a failed suicide bombing in Amman in 2005.
ISIL-held Raqqa has been repeatedly targeted by airstrikes by an international, U.S.-led anti-ISIL coalition.
Last summer, the militant group captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, killing thousands in the process. It later declared the captured territories to be part of an "Islamic caliphate."
The U.S.-led coalition has carried out numerous airstrikes against ISIL targets in both Iraq and Syria since the group captured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in June of last year.
