[Katsuya]

First off Kane, That suicide comment was a bit uneducated and rather insensitive.

But I'll forgive you.

Anyway back to the topic.

Originally Posted by cloudvii

weren't japanese hastages freed yesterday
it's over now , but i didn't understand why they were freed while japanese army is still at iraq !!!?

Solders have been recalled. But now two or more Japanese citizens have been taken.

BAGHDAD -- Three Japanese civilians taken hostage last week by gunmen in Iraq were freed Thursday and arrived safely at the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, government officials said.

Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera, which broke the news of the release, showed video footage of the three sitting on sofas in the Baghdad office of the Islamic Clerics Association and reported that they are in good health.

Their safety was later confirmed by the Foreign Ministry. In Tokyo, ruling coalition sources said Japan is considering sending a chartered plane to Baghdad to pick up the three.


The trio telephoned their relatives in Japan after arriving at the embassy. Takato reportedly apologized to her parents for causing them "a lot of trouble."

"We've confirmed that the three have been released and are in safe hands. I couldn't be happier," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Masaaki Yamazaki told reporters in Tokyo on Thursday night.

Yamazaki said it has "been a very long week," referring to the seven days since the hostage crisis began.

He said the government has no information about two Japanese civilians feared kidnapped Wednesday in Iraq. Tokyo would do its best to rescue them if it turns out that they have been taken hostage, he said.

Koriyama, Takato and Imai were captured by an unknown group that identified itself as Saraya al-Mujahideen (Mujahideen Brigades) last week while on their way to Baghdad from Amman. They were apparently held in or around Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

In the video message broadcast April 8 by Al-Jazeera, the captors threatened to kill the hostages unless Japan decided to withdraw its Self-Defense Forces troops from Iraq within three days.

But Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promptly rejected this demand and said he would not cave in to the demands of "terrorists."

On Sunday, the group sent a message to Al-Jazeera promising to release the hostages within 24 hours. But their status remained unknown, intensifying concern and frustration within the Japanese government and the families of the abductees.

Al-Jazeera said that the Islamic Clerics Association was informed by Saraya al-Mujahideen at 12:30 a.m. Thursday (5:30 a.m. Japan time) that the three would be released in response to calls by the clerics group.

The kidnappers took the three to the Kubaissi mosque in Baghdad, the Al-Jazeera report said.

A spokesman for the clerics association meanwhile said that growing public calls in Japan for the SDF troops to be withdrawn from Iraq led to the release of three Japanese. The clerics group is believed to have served as a mediator with the kidnappers.

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad received a phone call from an unidentified person just before 3 p.m. local time, or 8 p.m. Japan time, asking embassy staff to come to a mosque in the Amiriya district of Baghdad, where the three were waiting.

"It is surely a happy moment," Kawaguchi told a hastily arranged news conference. "I express my profound joy to the families (of the three) who had been worried sick."

Kawaguchi also thanked "the people of Iraq who helped with the release of the three, and other nations for their support in the incident."

She denied that the government had received a demand from the captors' group other than the withdrawal of the SDF troops, and refused to say whether the government had any contact with Saraya al-Mujahideen.

Divulging details on such matters might hamper efforts to find out the whereabouts of the two other Japanese still missing in Iraq, she said.

Kawaguchi repeatedly urged Japanese nationals to not enter Iraq under any circumstance, saying the government has issued the highest-level travel warning calling for Japanese to evacuate the country as quickly as possible.

Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Shinzo Abe meanwhile said he was glad the three hostages were released without Japan having to cave in to the kidnappers' demand. "I'd like the SDF to continue to carry out its task for the reconstruction of Iraq," he said.

Japan now plans to work with the U.S.-led occupation authorities in Iraq to try to find out more about Saraya al-Mujahideen, whose demand that the SDF be withdrawn in exchange for the lives of the hostages posed one of the biggest political challenges yet for the Koizumi administration.

Saraya al-Mujahideen was unknown before the three Japanese were taken hostage.

Earlier in the day, Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabia reported that Saraya al-Mujahideen entrusted a French journalist released from captivity Wednesday with a statement in which the group said it is abducting people from the United States and its allies.

Dozens of foreigners have been abducted in Iraq recently, and some kidnappings have ended with the release of hostages, including three Russians, seven Chinese and a Frenchman -- all from countries critical of the U.S.-led war on Iraq and that have not sent troops to the country.

A video of 4 ore more Italian nationals held hostage was released. On the tape one of the hostages is killed.

This is allegedly a message to the Italian government for failing to negotiate fast enough.

The group that took the Italians captive said it killed the hostage because Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi rejected its demand to withdraw Italian troops, according to its statement aired Thursday by Al-Jazeera.

Italy's Foreign Ministry confirmed that one of the four Italians was slain. Berlusconi vowed the same day to keep the troops in Iraq.

Later when I have time I'll add the list of reported hostages.

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Last edited by Katsuya; April 16th, 2004 at 23:25..