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Analysis: How Lebanon Is Cracking Under Pressure

After three months of abduction and weeks of threats of execution, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto was beheaded in Syria by the Islamic State on Saturday.

The execution was shown in a video released by the jihadists, in which an Islamic State fighter addresses Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe: “Because of your reckless decision to take part in an unwinnable war, this knife will not only slaughter Kenji, but will also carry on and cause carnage wherever your people are found. So let the nightmare for Japan begin.”

A shaken Abe addressed the Japanese people and condemned the “horrendeous” and “despicable” execution: “Japan will not be defeated by terrorism.”

See Syria & Iraq Audio Analysis: Should We Negotiate with Islamic State for Hostages?

Goto first appeared in an Islamic State video on January 20, giving a jihadist demand for $200 million in ransom. Subsequently, he was the messenger for the Islamic State’s threat to execute Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh, captured after his plane was downed in Syria on December 24.

Negotiations ensued for the release of al-Kasasbeh, to be exchanged for an Iraqi woman on death row in Jordan for an attempted suicide bombing; however, Goto’s name was not mentioned in the talks as he continued to pass on the Islamic State’s demands in audios.

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The journalist is the seventh foreign national since August whose execution has been publicized by Islamic State videos. Three Americans and two Britons have been beheaded, and Japanese national Haruna Yakawa, who travelled to Syria to set up a security company, was executed last week.

Goto reported as a freelance journalist, running his agency Independent Press, for more than 20 years from war zones in Africa, Afghanistan and the Middle East. In and near Syria, he worked with refugees and investigated the fate of Yukawa, who was captured by the Islamic State in August.

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In a tribute to Goto written last week, Henry Tricks, former Tokyo bureau chief of The Economist, said:

He is a much-loved father, who has three children. It is hard to reconcile the soft-spoken, gentle man, who once paled in a bowling alley because the sound of the balls reminded him of bombs dropping on Iraq, with the image of a hardened war correspondent. But he covers wars with a difference. Instead of focusing on who is winning or losing, he tells the stories of ordinary people, especially children, who are forced to endure conflict and the horrors surrounding them. It is their resilience that inspires him, he says. When you ask how he reaches the dangerous places he reports from, he says he follows the footsteps of normal people getting on with their lives. They show him the way.


At Least 6 Killed, 24 Wounded in Damascus Bus Blast

At least six people have been killed and 24 wounded in the explosion of a Lebanese bus carrying Shia pilgrims in central Damascus.

The cause of the blast was unclear. A Twitter account associated with Jabhat al-Nusra said a Saudi member blew himself up inside the bus, but Syrian media and the trip’s organizers said the blast was caused by an explosive device.

The bus carried Shia pilgrims from Lebanon as part of a weekly tour of two religious sites in the Syrian capital.

A tour organizer said 52 people were on the bus. Nineteen of them returned to Beirut on Sunday night.

Leading Syrian Military Defector Appears to Be Victim in 1 of Torture Photos

An activist notes that one of the thousands of photographs of torture victims in Syrian prisons, leaked by a defecting military photographer in January 2014, appears to show the defected Colonel Hussein Harmoush.

Harmoush left Syria in June 2011 but disappeared from a Turkish refugee camp in early September. Two weeks later, he appeared on Syrian State TV, accusing the opposition of “empty promises” and retracting his claim that the Syrian military fired on peaceful protesters on the Assad regime’s orders.

200 Airstrikes and 258 Barrel Bombs on Daraa Province in January

An activist summarizes the Syrian military’s efforts to hold back insurgent advances in Daraa Province in southern Syria in January — 200 airstrikes and 258 barrel bombs:

There have been at least four airstrikes on Sunday, with casualties reported.

Doctors treating injured children in Saida:

Serious clashes and at least 20 barrel bombs are reported near Zabadani in Damascus Province today.

Despite the attacks, the regime has not been able to check the opposition, who have taken a series of towns, villages, and regime bases south of Damascus in the past month.