New ISIS Video Purports to Show Beheading of Japanese Reporter

A 66-second ISIS video purports to show the beheading of Japanese reporter Kenji Goto, a gruesome end to a week of failed negotiations.

There was no immediate comment from Japanese or U.S. intelligence officials, but the video appears to show the detached head of the 46-year-old reporter who was captured late last year by the terror group while on assignment in Syria.

The video, titled "A Message to the Japanese Government," begins with Goto on his knees in a river valley. A masked man with a knife in his hand speaks with a British accent, addressing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

"Let the nightmare for Japan begin," the executioner says as he puts a knife to Goto's neck.

Shortly after the video's release, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he felt "very sorry for this matter," according to Japan's NHK news outlet.

"The government has tried its best to deal with this matter, but we are deeply saddened by this despicable and horrendous act of terrorism and we denounce it in the strongest terms," he said. "To the terrorists, we would never, never forgive them for this act." He said Japan would continue fighting against terrorism.

Prior to Abe's comments, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said word has gone out to government departments to meet to "collect intelligence and to respond firmly to this matter."

Calling it a "barbaric act," President Obama condemned "the heinous murder." Goto "courageously sought to convey the plight of the Syrian people," Obama said in a written statement, adding that "we stand in solidarity with Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese people."

Goto's brother and mother reacted with shock and sadness.

"I was hoping Kenji would come back alive to thank everyone who had supported him," his brother Junichi told Japanese public broadcaster NHK TV. "I am filled with sadness he couldn't do it."

Before his death, audio messages from Goto were published online by ISIS last week, relaying ISIS's offer to free Goto, but only if Jordan released a convicted female al Qaeda member, Sajida al-Rishawi, from death row. If the Jordanians did not release al-Rishawi, ISIS said through Goto, then Goto and a Jordanian pilot also held captive by the terror group would be killed. The Jordanian government publicly said they would release al-Rishawi, but only in return for the pilot.

Al-Rishawi has been in prison for a decade for her role in an al Qaeda bombing attack in Jordan in 2005 that killed dozens, including many at a wedding party.

ISIS set a hard deadline for al-Rishawi's release for sunset on Thursday, but the Jordanians didn't budge, saying ISIS had not provided proof of life their pilot was alive. Amid the tense negotiations, top Japanese officials had said they were working closely with Jordan to find a way to gain freedom for their citizen.

The status of the Jordanian pilot is unclear, but Goto now joins a number of Western civilians, and scores of locals who were murdered by the terror group.