Japan said yesterday it would do everything possible to try and secure the release of a Japanese security contractor it believes has been taken hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq.
Akihito Saito, a former member of the French Foreign Legion who was working for a British security firm, was believed to have been abducted Sunday after a gunbattle in western Iraq, the foreign ministry said.
"The government is doing its utmost to resolve the case," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said.
Security firm Hart told the Japanese Consulate General in London that Saito was missing after the attack, the foreign ministry said.
Hart said an unspecified number of people had died in the attack, and that Saito was among those who were unaccounted for, the foreign ministry said.
"We don't have any independent confirmation of hostage taking," foreign ministry spokesman Hatsuhisa Takashima told reporters. "We haven't established any direct contact with any members of the group."
Al-Qaeda-linked group Ansar al-Sunna released identity card copies giving the Japanese hostage's name and said he had been captured during a "fierce battle" in western Iraq.
The statement said that Saito, 44, was captured during an ambush of a convoy leaving a US base west of Baghdad during which several other foreigners were killed and Saito seriously wounded.
Takashima said Saito was believed to have entered Iraq in December last year.
"He was doing his job as a security official or security guard for various projects including providing security to American convoys," Takashima said.
"Prior to his contract with this company, he had been serving with the French Foreign Legion for more than 20 years," he said.
Media reports also said Saito was a member of Japan's Self Defense Forces between 1979 to 1981.
Ansar al-Sunna has carried out murders of foreign hostages in the past, often releasing video footage of the killings on Islamist websites.
The Japanese government was coordinating efforts with Hart, the US and Iraqi governments, countries around Iraq and Saito's family in Japan, the foreign ministry said.
Japan has some 600 troops in Iraq on the first deployment by the officially pacifist country since World War II to a zone where there is active fighting.
The troops -- who are forbidden from using their weapons except in the strictest definition of self-defense -- have not suffered any casualties since the reconstruction mission began in December 2003 in the relatively safe southern town of Samawa.
Defense minister Yoshinori Ohno told reporters the Japanese troops' mission in Iraq was not affected by the reported hostage taking.
Al-Qaeda-linked militants in October kidnapped and beheaded a 24-year-old Japanese backpacker, Shosei Koda, after the government rejected their demands to pull troops out of Iraq.
In April last year, Japan secured the release of three kidnapped aid workers and two journalists after days of intense mediation.
Japan has suffered four other fatalities in Iraq since the US-led invasion: two diplomats and two journalists killed in ambushes.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a steadfast ally of US President George W. Bush, was informed of the incident during his visit to Moscow where he was taking part in ceremonies marking the end of World War II in Europe.
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