Abe under pressure over IS hostages

Japan's Prime Minister Abe faced a tough test in parliament, where opposition leaders criticized his efforts to raise Japan's diplomatic profile following the beheading of journalist Kenji Goto by "Islamic State" (IS) militants.

"Japan will never yield to terrorists. We will ensure the safety of Japanese nationals with a unified effort," Abe defended his government at a meeting of lawmakers from his Liberal Democratic Party and coalition allies on Monday.

Citing a 1995 sarin gas attack in Tokyo's subways, Abe said he did not see an increased risk of terrorism following savage threats in a purported Islamic State video, which vowed to target the Japanese.

The hostage drama erupted after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged $200 million in aid for refugees fleeing Syria. IS militants had demanded the same sum in exchange for the two journalists who had been in their captivity for months.

On Saturday, IS released a video claiming that it had killed well-known war correspondent Goto, the second after another Japanese journalist, Haruna Yakawa, was killed a week before.

Abe said his government would not be cowed by threats from the Islamic State and that he was determined to "pursue terrorists and hold them accountable." Japan would also continue to provide medical assistance and other aid to help restore stability in the region, he added.

Jordan facing public opposition

Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah tried to soothe public opinion regarding pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh, captured by the IS last year when his fighter plane crashed into an IS stronghold in northern Syria.

The IS said last week they would release al-Kaseasbeh if Amman were ready to free al Qaeda-linked terrorist, Sajida al-Rishawi, responsible for bombings in 2005 which killed at least 60 people.

Dozens of young people in the pilot's hometown in Karak, Jordan, called upon the King to withdraw from the US-led campaign against IS militants after the IS released images of the beheading of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto on Saturday.

The United Nations Security Council also issued a statement Sunday, saying there was a need to bring those responsible for Goto's "heinous and cowardly murder" to justice and that the Islamic State "must be defeated and that the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out."

mg/rg (AFP, AP, Reuters)