A few hours after the expiry of the ultimatum sent by the Islamic State to the Japanese government on January 20, threatening to execute two Japanese hostages unless the militants received 200 million dollars in 72 hours, Twitter is abuzz with rumors that the two men have already been executed by the terror group.

According to tweets posted on several news networks accounts, including Bulletproof Keyboard, Conflict News and Kurdistan News, the two Japanese citizens, identified as Kenji Goto Jogo and Haruna Yukawa, a journalist and a military company operator respectively, were brutally beheaded by the fanatic jihadists.

A video of the beheading will soon be published on the internet, the same accounts report.

It should be noted that, earlier in the day, Japan said that it was still trying to secure the release of the two hostages, after the deadline to pay ransom for their release passed and there was no word on their fate.