Posted on 10/30/2004 1:34:15 PM PDT by TexKat
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi officials found the decapitated body of what appears to be a young Asian male in Baghdad on Saturday. Associated Press Television News videotape showed the severed head, which had long black hair and features similar to a Japanese hostage.
A hospital official said he believed the body was that of kidnapped Japanese hostage Shosei Koda, saying he recognized the body from a videotape aired by Al-Jazeera television.
Iraqi's civil defense officials said they were alerted to the corpse in the fields off Haifa Street, a Baghdad neighborhood that is largely controlled by insurgents. Authorities retrieved it from the area and transported it to a hospital.
Policeman Yassin Hashim, who examined the body, said it was wrapped in an American flag. The body was dressed in jeans, a beige shirt, and black underwear, he said.
Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman of the Interior Ministry confirmed a decapitated body had been found in the Baghdad area and said the "features indicate he's Asian." He gave no further information
Japan is aware of the report and is trying to confirm its details, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Akira Chiba.
An al-Qaida-linked group led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi showed Koda, a 24-year-old Japanese backpacker, on a video posted on a militant Web site Tuesday.
The group had vowed to behead Koda within 48 hours unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq (news - web sites). Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi quickly rejected that demand, saying he would not give in to terrorists.
Hashim, the policeman who examined the body, said the man had long black hair and Asian facial features, with a scar near his heart.
"I am the one who examined the body and I confirm that he is the Japanese person who appeared on television and was threatened to be beheaded," he said.
An APTN cameraman took video of the body in the ambulance as it was being transported. The video showed the head, which resembled images of Koda in Tuesday's videotape.
Youssef Hussein, an official at Karkh Jumhuri hospital, said the body was found with the hands tied in the back. The head was placed over the victim's back.
"He is the Japanese because I saw the tape on Al-Jazeera," Hussein said. "From his eyes, his description, he is the Japanese."
A different body was found Friday by U.S. troops between the towns of Tikrit and Balad, raising fears it was Koda's. But doctors on Saturday determined it was not him.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, center, is surrounded by reporters as he speaks on a body found in Iraq at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo Saturday, Oct. 30, 2004. The body found in Iraq resembling 24-year-old Japanese hostage Shohei Koda held by Islamic militants has been examined in Kuwait and is unlikely to be that of the civilian captive, Hosoda said. No further details were immediately available. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
An appropriate action would be for Japan to insert its special forces exactly at the point where they found this body, and begin festivities.
Film, I presume, at 11:00.
Prayers for his family, bump.
Policeman Yassin Hashim, who examined the body, said it was wrapped in an American flag.
Prayers for the murdered, their families and love ones.
This is another example of the evil we are fighting. If half of America thinks John Kerry can win against this they are dead wrong. Unfortunately if half of America votes him in as president, we are just plain dead.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Polish hostage Teresa Borcz Khalifa appealed to her government on a video aired on Saturday, saying her life depended on the withdrawal of Polish forces from Iraq as demanded by her Iraqi captors.
"I am asking for help ... from Poland and the Polish people and whoever can help me," she said in the video aired by Al Jazeera television, which showed her sitting under the flag of the militant Islamic group that kidnapped her last week.
Backpacker?!
Undated photo shows Japanese Shosei Koda who reportedly went to Iraq as a tourist and was abducted by Al-Qaeda-linked militants. Crunch talks to avert a military assault on rebel-held Fallujah rumbled, as British troops started to patrol a hostile region outside Baghdad and confusion reigned over the fate of a Japanese hostage.(AFP/Jiji Press/STR)
Who goes to Baghdad as a tourist? How the heck did he get in?
call in CSI:Baghdad
Thanks for the info. But, you know, you can't just fly to Iraq, can you? Without journalistic credentials or an employer or anything?
I don't know if there's a Customs office set up yet, but it's hard to imagine people lining up with their passports and being asked "purpose of visit?" and being waved through with the answer "backpacking."
Works for me!!!
Not gonna happen!! GWB will be re-elected.:-)
Yes, you're exactly right about not being able to fly directly into Iraq. I got the impression that he flew into a neighboring country and "slipped" into Iraq. It seemed perfectly plausible to me. I'll check with my finacee to get a clarification on this.
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