posted on May, 10 2005 @ 05:42 PM
Islamic militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said on Monday it had abducted a Japanese national working at a U.S. base in Iraq, according to a
statement posted on the Internet.
The group posted on its Web site a picture of a Japanese passport bearing the name Akihiko Saito as well as an identification card saying he was a
security manager.
The group said it seized him after it ambushed a convoy of cars coming from the U.S. base near the capital Baghdad when the convoy neared the town of
Hit in Iraq's Sunni Muslim western region.
"He (the hostage) has serious injuries and we will soon issue a video showing him," said the statement posted on a Web site used by Islamists.
The statement's authenticity could not be verified immediately. There was no independent confirmation.
A Japanese Foreign Ministry official in Tokyo said the government was looking into the report
The militant group said there had been 12 Iraqi "apostates" and five armed foreigners travelling in the convoy.
"The mujahideen (holy fighters) captured them and killed them immediately with the exception of one and he is Japanese."
The organisation, one of the main Sunni Muslim insurgent groups, has claimed responsibility for attacks against U.S. forces and the Iraqi government
and killed several hostages.
Being a contractor and seeing the photos of his ID's i am 100% sure this documentation is real and i am aware of this situation what happened, what
they fail to mention is the fact that when the area was cleared by the survivors the military returned to the location to recover the bodies only to
find out they had rigged the dead with more explosices making it nearly impossible for them to be removed from the site, this is a comman tactic they
use, they have even gone to extremes of packing dead animals with explosives and leaving them on the side of roads.... i mean who thinks that a dead
dog on the side of the road in iraq (of which there are many) is actually a improvised explosive device!!
Still no news on the austrailian as yet praying for him but every hour that goes by is looking bleaker...