The United Nations Security Council has condemned the murder of a Japanese hostage by the Islamic State group and called for the immediate release of a second hostage.
In a unanimous declaration, the 15 members of the security body spoke out against the IS group's "brutality" in its apparent beheading of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa.
"The Security Council... strongly condemned the heinous and cowardly act," a statement said.
"This crime is, yet again, a tragic reminder of the increasing dangers people face every day in Syria, including journalists," the Security Council said.
"It also once again demonstrates the brutality of ISIL, which is responsible for thousands of abuses against the Syrian and Iraqi people," it said, using another name for IS.
Further, the Security Council "underlined the need to bring perpetrators of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice".
The 15 countries demanded the immediate release of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto and all hostages still being held by militants in Syria and Iraq.
IS "must be defeated and... the intolerance, violence and hatred it espouses must be stamped out," the council members added.
