Posted on 05/28/2005 12:21:57 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Sat May 28, 7:52 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Japan said on Saturday it believed a Japanese hostage seized in Iraq was dead, after insurgents said they had killed him and posted footage on the Internet apparently showing his corpse.
The video showed identification papers and a passport bearing the name of Akihiko Saito, 44, a former paratrooper and veteran of the French Foreign Legion, who had been missing since his convoy was ambushed in western Iraq on May 8.
A corpse was shown lying on its back, its face bloodied.
"This is your punishment ... infidel," shouted an unseen man as gunshots rang out. A statement accompanying the video said the group shot and killed Saito.
"We have to conclude, with regret, that it is Mr Saito," said Akira Chiba, assistant press secretary at Japan's foreign ministry. He said Saito's employer Hart Security, and Japanese police had concluded the footage showed Saito's body.
Saito's brother also confirmed the identification.
"I saw the footage and confirmed that it was my older brother," Hironobu Saito said in a handwritten statement to media organizations.
The Army of Ansar al-Sunna, one of Iraq's most feared insurgent groups, said earlier this month it carried out the ambush near the U.S. al-Assad base and that Saito had been seriously wounded and captured.
British-based Hart Security says 10 Iraqi members of the convoy were killed in the ambush. South African Nick Coetzee is missing and presumed dead, the firm says.
Iraq's government condemned the killing of Saito.
"This criminal act will not affect diplomatic relations between Iraq and Japan," Abd al-Karim al-Enzi, Iraq's minister of state for national security, said in a statement.
(Additional reporting by Dubai and Tokyo bureaux)
Love to see it. But Japan has been effectively de-balled. At the time, it was quite necessary.
I am not so sure. we had a LOT of Japanese exchange students at Tulane, and they seemed to evince signs of a renaissance of Bushido
The main advantage of the Bushido warriors at first was that they did not play by the same "rules" as their adversaries. Only when their adversaries (the West) grew strong enough to stomp them into the earth did they eventually capitulate. Assymetrical warfare has been around for a long time.
Love to have them as full-fledged military allies.
as would I.
now, if only they and the South Koreans can be trusted to operate on the same battlefield as allies...
The most eloquent picture!
Thanks, DTogo. :))
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