Foreigner kidnapped in Iraq

2005-05-09 21:48

Tokyo - A Japanese employee of a foreign security firm was kidnapped in Iraq, foreign minister Nobutaka Machimura was quoted as saying on Tuesday by Kyodo News after an al-Qaeda-linked group claimed to have a Japanese hostage.

Kyodo News said a Cypriot security firm had also confirmed the man was on its payroll.

The public broadcaster NHK reported, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who visited Moscow for World War II anniversary ceremonies, had been informed of the kidnapping.

In a statement posted on an Islamist website on Monday, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group said it had seized a Japanese hostage during a "fierce battle" in western Iraq.

Tokyo deploys military

Identity card photographs accompanying the statement from the Army of Ansar al-Sunna gave the hostage's name as Akihiko Saito, 44.

Japanese forces were on a historic mission to Iraq as it was the first time since World War II that Tokyo had deployed the military to a country where there was active fighting.

The Japanese forces had suffered no casualties, although in October an al-Qaeda-linked group kidnapped and beheaded a 24-year-old Japanese backpacker, Shosei Koda.

- AFP