Iraqi Insurgent group kill and post footage of Japanese hostage

An Iraqi insurgent group said in an Internet posting Saturday that it had killed a Japanese hostage, seized in Iraq and posted footage on the Internet showing his bloodied corpse.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry and the hostage’s brother confirmed the video footage showed the body of Akihiko Saito.
“We have to conclude, with regret, that it is Mr. Saito,” a ministry source told reporters in Tokyo.
“I saw the footage and confirmed that it was my older brother,” Hironobu Saito said in a handwritten statement to media organizations.

The Iraqi national security minister, Abdul-Karim Enizi, condemned the killing in a statement and said efforts had been made to negotiate Saito’s release, but that “the assassination came before we reached a decision with the other side.”

A video posted on a Web site used by insurgents to distribute information appeared to show the blood-soaked body of Akihiko Saito, 44, a security contractor for a British firm, as well as some of his identification papers, who was captured on May 8 when insurgents ambushed a civilian security convoy.

The British-based company says 10 Iraqi members of the convoy were killed and another employee, South African Nick Coetzee, is missing and presumed dead.

The insurgent group known as the Ansar al-Sunna Army asserted responsibility for the killing. Six Japanese civilians have been taken hostage since the U.S. invasion of Iraq; two of them have been killed. Japan has about 600 troops based in the southern city of Samawah.

The Army of Ansar al-Sunna, which claimed responsibility for killing Saito, is one of Iraq’s most feared insurgent groups. A corpse was shown lying on its back, its face bloodied. “This is your punishment… infidel,” shouted an unseen man as gunshots rang out.

“This criminal act will not affect diplomatic relations between Iraq and Japan,” Enizi said in the statement.

Officials said Saito’s employer, Hart Security, and Japanese police had studied the footage and concluded that the body shown was his.