Japan's 500 non-combat troops will stay in Iraq

Japan on Sunday denounced the beheading of a &to= english.pravda.ru/accidents/ 21/93/375/12467_hostages.html' target=_blank>Japanese hostage in Iraq after a day that saw the heaviest U.S. casualties for six months and the bloodiest attack on a media organization since the start of the war. Nine U.S. marines were killed on Saturday and a bomb attack on an Arab television station claimed seven lives in Baghdad. Japanese officials confirmed a body and head found in the Iraqi capital were those of Shosei Koda, 24, a backpacker thought to have taken a bus to Iraq from Jordan last week. An Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman said the body, with its feet bound, had been wrapped in an American flag. Television footage showed Koda's corpse in a white, blood- soaked shirt and his severed head with a thin beard. "I once again feel anger at this cruel and inhuman act," said Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a close ally of President Bush. He said Japan's 500 &to= english.pravda.ru/war/2003/04/01/45357.html ' target=_blank>non-combat troops would stay in Iraq despite the killing. Militants led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America's top enemy in Iraq, had threatened on Tuesday to behead Koda within 48 hours unless Japanese troops went home, informs Reuters. According to CNN, Shosei Koda was found in Baghdad on Saturday wrapped in an American flag after Japan refused hostage-takers' demands to pull troops from the country. The death of Koda, who was kidnapped last Tuesday, puts renewed pressure on Prime Minister &to= english.pravda.ru/politics/2003/01/09/41786.html ' target=_blank>Junichiro Koizumi, who must soon decide whether to extend Japan's deployment of 550 troops beyond December. Koizumi expressed condolences to Koda's family, and said he had a feeling of indignation over the killing. "It is an evil act of terrorism to kill innocent civilians. We feel deep indignation and we can never forgive this terrorist act," Koizumi said. Koizumi also vowed to stay the course in Iraq. A five-day hostage crisis ended in tragedy Sunday as the government said a decapitated body found in Baghdad earlier in the day was that of Shosei Koda, a 24-year-old Japanese taken captive by a militant group in Iraq last week. Shosei Koda is shown in an undated file photo. Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told a hastily arranged news conference at the ministry Sunday morning that the government made a positive identification after determining the body's fingerprints and physical description matched those of Koda. "This act of terror that snuffed out the life of an innocent civilian is extremely vicious, and I feel strong fury toward those who commit such acts," Machimura said. "This is totally unforgivable, and Japan will continue to cooperate with the international community to fight terrorism." In a video shown Wednesday on the Web site of a militant group, Koda's captors said they would behead him unless Japan withdrew the Self-Defense Forces from Iraq within 48 hours -- a demand Tokyo immediately rejected, reports the Japan Times Online.

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