ISIL beheading incidents

Islamic State militants appear to have beheaded one of their two Japanese hostages and are demanding the release of a convicted terrorist in Jordan in exchange for the other.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Jan. 25 branded the murder of a Japanese hostage by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants as "outrageous and unforgivable" and demanded the immediate release of a second captive, amid growing global revulsion.
      

The deadline set by Islamist militants threatening to kill two Japanese men unless they were given $200 million passed Jan. 23, after one captive's mother made a desperate plea to save her son's life.
      

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has sought help from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, as well as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, to free two hostages snatched by Islamist militants who are demanding $200 million for their lives.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe demanded Jan. 20 that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) immediately free two Japanese hostages unharmed after the jihadists posted a video threat to kill them.
      

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) threatened to kill two Japanese hostages unless Tokyo pays a $200 million ransom within 72 hours, in a video posted on jihadist websites on Jan. 20.
      
In the footage, a black-clad militant brandishing a knife addresses the camera in English, standing between two hostages wearing orange jumpsuits.
      

The gruesome murders of foreign journalists by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) contributed to 2014 being a particularly deadly year for international correspondents, an annual review by the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Dec. 23.

U.S. counter-terrorism officials backed negotiations with two prominent jihadi clerics in a failed attempt to save the life of an American hostage who was later beheaded by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, the Guardian newspaper reported on Dec. 19.
   

"We will not be cowed by these sick terrorists," said British Prime Minister David Cameron after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) produced a grisly video of the mass beheading of Syrian captives by foreign jihadis who allegedly included British fighters. As if the purpose of terrorist attacks in Western countries was to cow and intimidate them.

A second Frenchman who appeared among Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists in a grisly execution video has been identified as a man from an eastern suburb of Paris, a source close to the case said Nov. 19.