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7 South Koreans, 3 Japapnese, 1 Briton Seized By Iraqi Shi'a Militiamen
http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2004%20News%20archives/April/8n/7%20South%20Koreans,%203%20Japapnese,%201%20Briton%20Seized%20By%20Iraqi%20Shi'a%20Militiamen.htm
Thu Apr 8, 2004 10:58 AM ET
By Andrew Marshall
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Seven South Koreans, three Japanese and a Briton were reported Thursday to have been seized in Iraq and militants threatened to burn the Japanese alive unless their country withdrew its troops.
Gunmen frequently stage hold-ups on Iraq's roads but the taking of hostages would mark a sharp escalation of the growing conflict between U.S.-led forces and Iraqis and foreign militants opposed to the occupation.
No demands were issued in relation to the South Koreans, who were members of a church group, or the Briton, identified as a contractor. The Japanese were reported to be a female aid worker, a researcher and a freelance cameraman.
Arab television Al Jazeera showed the three Japanese, kneeling with their eyes bound with white cloth and surrounded by masked men holding rifles and also sitting on the floor without their bindings and talking to their captors. The walls of the room were riddled with bullets.
It said they had been taken hostage by a hitherto unknown Iraqi group called Saraya al-Mujahideen (Mujahideen Brigades).
"We tell you that three of your children have fallen prisoner in our hands and we give you two options -- withdraw your forces from our country and go home or we will burn them alive," the group said.
"You have three days from the date of this tape's airing," it said in a statement, accusing Japan of betraying Iraqis by supporting the U.S.-led occupation.
A Japanese government spokesman demanded their immediate release and said the country had no plans to pull out of Iraq.
Nudged by the United States, Tokyo has sent 550 troops to Samawa on a non-combat mission to help rebuild Iraq in its riskiest military deployment since World War II which critics say violates Japan's pacifist constitution.
Another U.S.-ally, South Korea has 600 military engineers and medics in Iraq and plans to send 3,000 more for reconstruction.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said seven South Korean members of a church group had been taken hostage by armed men.
Kim Sang-mee, another member of the group escaped the gunmen, told South Korea's MBC TV that several Iraqis armed with guns and dressed like civilians stopped cars and took away the rest of her group, which had been on its way to Baghdad from Jordan.
"We told them we're Koreans several times, but they didn't care," Kim said.
A British civilian was also reported kidnapped, in the southern Iraqi town of Nassiriya, the scene of heavy fighting between radical Shi'ite militiamen and Iraqi troops.
A coalition official named the man as Gary Teeley, a British contractor. He was abducted Tuesday and had not been heard of since. He said efforts were under way to locate him.
British media said Teeley, 37, was married and resident in the Middle East and had been working at a U.S. airbase.
A Foreign Office official in London confirmed that Teeley was missing, but would not say what he was doing in Iraq or comment on the manner of his disappearance.
Earlier Thursday, Japan had already vowed to make no hasty decisions about its non-combat troops after explosions near their camp.
No Japanese soldier has fired a shot in action or been killed in combat since 1945 and casualties could undermine support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's government ahead of Upper House elections in July.
In Tokyo, a foreign ministry official said it was checking the situation. Top government officials including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, the top government spokesman, gathered at the prime minister's office to collect information while Koizumi was at his official residence.
Passports shown on the video carried the woman's name as Nahoko Takato and the two men as Noriaki Imai and Soichiro Koriyama. At least one of them had a press identification card.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK said the woman belonged to a human rights group and had been involved in relief work for children in Iraq since last year.
Imai had been planning a trip to Iraq to do field work on the possible effects of depleted uranium weapons, NHK said, while Kiriyama is a freelance cameraman. (Additional reporting by Ghaida Ghantous and Firouz Sedarat in Dubai and Rhee So-eui in Seoul)
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