Japanese Held Hostage in Iraq

[Soulhunter]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,116523,00.html

This time it seems to be real. This is getting nasty ...

My prayers for the hostages.

[wulfstan]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,116523,00.html

This time it seems to be real. This is getting nasty ...

My prayers for the hostages.

That link is annoying, why the hell have they put that advert in the middle of a serious news item. Idiots.

[Soulhunter]

look like organized hostage taking:

Report: Japanese, Koreans Held Hostage in Iraq

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,116523,00.html

The Qatar-based satellite news channel aired a video from a group called Saraya al-Mujahedeen, which showed two Asian men and one woman, dressed in civilian clothing.

The trio were blindfolded in one video shot and wide-eyed in another. At least one open Japanese passport was held up to the camera.

Al Jazeera said the group was giving Japan three days to withdraw its troops from Iraq before it killed the hostages.

In a separate report, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that seven South Koreans were being held in Iraq by an armed group.

Eight Christian ministers were initially detained, ******* quoted Yonhap as saying, but one was later released.

[Soulhunter]

an apparently an englishman in Nassiriya, Al Jazeera is quoting a coalition speaker ...

[HELEX]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/08AE4283-9193-4564-9417-167B50B27BD7/34078/8FE87490BEBE42A08B3C2E7364B11033.jpg

[Soulhunter]

Also Thursday the UK Foreign Office said a British civilian in Iraq was missing.

The man, Gary Teeley, was in Nasiriya before he disappeared, a spokesman for the Foreign Office said.

Officials did not say whether they believe Teeley was kidnapped. His family has been contacted.

The British government is working with the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq in the search for him, the British Foreign Office spokesman said.

I wonder what the coalition will do about these hostage takings?

[HELEX]

One of the Hostages :(

http://www.n-tv.de/images/200404/5233126__{EF085C7A-D785-494E-B6E5-75CCDCFFA608}.jpg

[fdt]

Sorry to say, but the only way to save them alive seems to be taking Sadrist people as hostages...

[Soulhunter]

:(

but I don't think taking al-sadr militia as hostages will change anything, they are ready to die as martyrs ...

[HELEX]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/08AE4283-9193-4564-9417-167B50B27BD7/34075/3CDD6BB7F70144CAA0DEADA8C112AD9D.jpg

[fdt]

:(

but I don't think taking al-sadr militia as hostages will change anything, they are ready to die as martyrs ...Ohhhh it's not that difficult, just make sure that You take the right people (best would be families of the Sadrist big shots)... This method works, as Soviets proved once in Lebanon as their man was taken hostage. The key is, You have to convince them that You are capable to shoot them with cold blood in eventual retaliation.

Unpatiently waiting for outraged human rights activists response... :) How would You save their lives... huh?

[fdt]

By the way Japs havent yielded as Tupac Amaru movement took their embassy in Lima/Peru... They are not rather first who are willing to negotiate in such circumstances...

[HELEX]

Update: At least one British citizen is Hostage.

[Soulhunter]

Good question

[duck]

The kidnapping of foreign journalists and missionaries is not a great achievement, even for a scumbag "guerilla" like the Sunni and Shia religious fascists. Better to hit them hard, before Tokyo and Seoul begin to falter. A violent hostage rescue and punishment action should be a first choice, preferably with no survivors apart from the hostages. Now, where are those Rangers again?

[Aussie E]

From http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

Japan: No plans to quit Iraq
From correspondents in Tokyo
April 08, 2004
JAPAN has no plans to withdraw its forces from Iraq despite the kidnapping by insurgents of three Japanese civilians there.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said the Japanese government was still trying to confirm media reports that the three will be killed unless Japan pulls out its forces in the country on a humanitarian mission.

Fukuda said Japan was standing firm in its commitment to help rebuild Iraq, adding there was "no reason" to withdraw.

[cut]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40019000/jpg/_40019739_hostages2_203body.jpg

[scm77]

I truly hope this is just another one of Al-Jazeera's bull**** propaganda stories. But it looks like it's true. :(

[Mamon]

You remember what they did to Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. I fear the same thing will happen :(

[seruriermarshal]

You remember what they did to Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. I fear the same thing will happen :(

Yes , I still remember him ( Daniel Pearl ) .

:(

[FallenAngel]

Just read two Israelis are also being held on Yahoo! News

[Ichhabe]

Let's just hope the insurgents do the mistake and kidnap some Russians. Then they will learn true hostage-negotiation.(For them who remember that there were only one time that Russian personell was kidnapped in Beyrouth, Lebanon. Just one, and then Russians could walk naked down Main Street, Beyrouth without any fair of being kidnapped.)

[Webley]

Iraqi militants are today threatening to burn three foreign hostages to death unless their country quits the US-led coalition.

Two Japanese men and one woman are being held by a previously unknown group which has vowed to kill them if Japanese soldiers do not leave Iraq. Elsewhere, seven South Koreans are being held hostage west of Baghdad by an unknown group, while a British man has been reported missing in the south.

The plight of the Japanese hostages - two aid workers and one journalist was revealed in dramatic video footage shown on al-Jazeera TV. It showed the three surrounded by masked gunmen, who claimed to be from Saraya al-Mujahideen, "the squadrons of holy warriors".

A written statement said: "Three of your sons have fallen in our hands. We offer you two choices: either pull out your forces, or we will burn them alive.

We give you three days starting the day this tape is broadcast."

The tape showed three passports and in Tokyo an official confirmed the abductions. One of the two men was named as Noriaki Imai, thought to be an aid worker based in New York. The other, Soichiro Koriyama, is thought to work for the Weekly Asahi, Japan's best-selling news magazine. The woman was named as Nahoko Takato. Japan has 550 troops in Iraq in its first overseas deployment since the Second World War.

London-born Gary Teeley, 37, has disappeared in the increasingly anarchic city of Nasariyah, the Foreign Office said. He is thought to have been working for a Qatari firm providing non-military services.



http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/modules/Article/print.jsp?itemId=10169441

[Mr Gently Benevolent]

Your getting right into this new guise Sixgun quoting thisislondon.com you will turn into a right diamond geezer soon enough.

[Luxembourger]

those guys who are taking hostages and threatening to cut the thorats of japanese civilians including the israeli hostage are not freedpm figthers but a bunch of terrorists

[Kriz]

those guys who are taking hostages and threatening to cut the thorats of japanese civilians including the israeli hostage are not freedpm figthers but a bunch of terrorists

They aren't human beings in my eyes, they lack everything that seperates us from animals. They should be treated likewise....

[usa320]

We will get them. We will kill the people holding them.

Thats a given.

[chopsticks]

So what if those three days pass and the civilians get killed. How do you guys think that Japan will react? And Korea (for her civilians)?

And do them "holy warriors" really believe that Japan will pull out? Besides, I don't trust them "holy warriors". Who's gonna say they'll release the hostages if Japan pulls out? Who says they don't gonna kill em and blame the coalition?

[Gringo]

Those are terrorists, not 'freedon fighters', rebels or resistence.

That puts them in a far lower plain then humanity. The people do not deserve being taken hostage whatsoever, it's not their war.
It is a bit of a show of how desperate they are to do such a thing.

I personally would like to see every basterd who did this dead, no more prisoners!

[podkus]

http://ww2.tvp.pl/tvppl/video/2004/04/08/14839/film.asf

*.asf - **** quality but... :(

[mack pl]

THX podkus,I dont saw Wiadomości today ;) BTW when this terrorist shoot by his RPG7 he must injured some dog(I heard screaming),what a savages :(

[Webley]

those guys who are taking hostages and threatening to cut the thorats of japanese civilians including the israeli hostage are not freedpm figthers but a bunch of terrorists

Actually, they said that they were going to burn the hostages. This is far worse than cutting their throats.

*click here* (http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/modules/Article/print.jsp?itemId=10169441)

[Truthsayer]

I saw the fotage on TV and it all bring back memories of afghanistan, chechnia and several other locations with hard-'core' gerillas that have de-persionalised their enemy so much that cutting their through isn't an issue to loose sleep over.

I did however.