TOKYO -- The fates of a Japanese journalist and Jordanian military pilot were unknown Friday, a day after the latest reported deadline for a possible prisoner swap passed with no further word from the Islamic State extremists holding them captive.
Jordan has said it will release an al-Qaida prisoner, Sajida al-Rishawi, from death row if it gets proof the pilot, Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, is alive. So far it has received no such evidence from the captors.
At the same time, the government is under domestic pressure to win the release of al-Kaseasbeh, the first foreign pilot to be captured by Islamic State militants since a U.S.-led military coalition began carrying out airstrikes against areas it controls in Iraq and Syria in September. Jordan is part of the coalition.
In the pilot's home village of Ay in the southern Karak district, several dozen protesters called for his release and chanted against Jordan's role in the alliance against Islamic State. "The sons of Jordan must not be sacrificed for America," said a banner.
Former Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Muasher said the Jordanian government faces only bad options in the hostage crisis.
"Jordan does not have a history of negotiating with terrorists," Muasher said. "At the same time, I think it is clear that all other alternatives are worse than releasing the pilot and ending in that scenario."
Al-Rishawi, 44, faces death by hanging for her role in triple 2005 hotel bombings in the Jordanian capital, Amman, that killed 60 people.
She initially confessed to being involved but later recanted. Al-Rishawi is from the Iraqi city of Ramadi and has close family ties to the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida, a precursor of the Islamic State. Three of her brothers were al-Qaida operatives killed in fighting in Iraq.
Government spokesman Mohammed al-Momani declined to comment Friday on a Kuwaiti newspaper report that al-Rishawi's execution and the trials of Islamic State-linked detainees in Jordan could be moved up if the pilot is killed by his captors.
Earlier this week, an audio message claimed to have been posted by Islamic State militants said the pilot would be killed if al-Rishawi was not delivered to the Turkish border by sunset Thursday. The authenticity of the recording could not be verified independently.
It was not clear from the recording what would happen to a second hostage, Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, if the Iraqi woman was not turned over by the deadline. The deadline passed without word on the fate of the captives.
Officials in Tokyo said they had no progress to report.
"There is nothing I can tell you," said government spokesman Yoshihide Suga, reiterating Japan's "strong trust" in the Jordanians to help save Goto.
Suga said the government was in close contact with Goto's wife, Rinko Jogo, who released a statement late Thursday pleading for her husband's life.
The pilot's father, Safi al-Kaseasbeh, said Friday that he had no word on the fate of his son and had not received any update from Jordanian authorities. "I have nothing," he said, speaking after Muslim noon prayers in Amman.
A spokesman for the family, Said Dalaeen, later said there was word that the pilot is alive, but he did not elaborate.
The hostage drama began last week after the Islamic State released a video threatening to kill Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa, in 72 hours unless Japan paid a $200 million ransom.
That demand later apparently shifted to one for the release of al-Rishawi.
The militants have reportedly killed Yukawa, 42, although that has not been confirmed.
The crisis prompted the Japanese Foreign Ministry to issue a warning Friday to journalists to avoid the border town in Turkey that could be a crossing point from Syria if a prisoner swap goes ahead.
"We cannot dismiss the possibility of a kidnapping of Japanese journalists or of other risks to them," it said.
The warning followed news that a Japanese journalist helping cover a possible prisoner swap at the border died in a car crash near the area Thursday, according to Turkish officials.
Kazumi Takaya, based in Turkey for 22 years, was working as a translator for Fuji TV at the time of the crash, local media reports said.
Elsewhere Friday, clashes with Islamic State militants killed a senior Kurdish military commander and eight of his fighters just outside the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, officials said.
Attacks elsewhere in Iraq killed 27 people, with twin bombs hitting a crowded market in Baghdad and a suicide bomber targeting pro-government Shiite militiamen who were manning a checkpoint north of the Iraqi capital.
The casualties near Kirkuk were a heavy setback for the Iraqi Kurds, who have been at the forefront of the battle against the Islamic State.
Information for this article was contributed by Omar Akour, Miki Toda, Kaori Hitomi, Mari Yamaguchi, Imad Matti and Sameer N. Yacoub of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/31/2015