Japan Presses for Release of Iraq Hostage
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Japanese leaders struggled on Thursday to make contact with Islamic militants in Iraq who took a Japanese traveler hostage as the 48-hour deadline approached for the young man's threatened beheading. Tokyo stood firm in its refusal to meet the kidnappers' demand to withdraw troops from Iraq.
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TOKYO Japanese leaders are struggling to make contact with Islamic militants in Iraq holding a Japanese traveler hostage. The Japanese government says it has few details on the kidnapping of the 24-year-old tourist.
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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said Japan will not pull its troops out of Iraq despite threats by a group led by an al Qaeda ally to behead a Japanese hostage, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.
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By Natalie Obiko Pearson, Associated Press, 10/30/2004 01:52. TOKYO  A body resembling a Japanese hostage held by Islamic militants has been found in Iraq, the government announced Saturday, and officials
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Japan has sent two diplomats to a forensic medical facility in Iraq to see if a head and body found in Baghdad was that of a Japanese man taken hostage.
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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said  Japan will not pull its troops out of Iraq despite threats by a  group led by an al Qaeda ally to behead a Japanese hostage,  Japanese media reported on Wednesday.
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Japan&#39;s prime minister today refused to bend to demands by militants who have taken a Japanese civilian hostage in Iraq and threatened to behead him unless Tokyo withdraws its soldiers.
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Video posted Tuesday on a militant Islamic Web site showed what it claimed was a Japanese captive kidnapped by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group and threatened to behead him within 48 hours unless Japan pulls its troops from Iraq.
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Japan sought international help on  Thursday for a Japanese man held hostage in Iraq, with less  than 24 hours to go for a deadline set by his captors to behead  him unless Tokyo pulled out its troops.
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The group led by wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has said it has abducted a member of Japan&#39;s armed forces and is threatening to behead him if the Japanese government does not withdraw its troops from Iraq within 48 hours.
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Japan today refused to withdraw its troops from Iraq despite demands by Iraqi militants who have taken a Japanese civilian hostage and threatened to behead him unless the soldiers left.
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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Wednesday Japanese troops would not pull out of Iraq, rejecting a demand by Islamic militants claiming to have taken a Japanese hostage.
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Japan's government was still in the dark  about a Japanese held hostage in Iraq on Thursday, less than 24  hours before a deadline set by his captors, who have threatened  to behead the young man unless Japan withdraws its troops.
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Japan has denounced the beheading of a Japanese hostage in Iraq after a day that saw the heaviest US casualties for six months and the bloodiest attack on a media organisation since the start of the war.
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A group threatened to execute a Japanese hostage in Iraq unless Japan pulls out its forces, but Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Wednesday that the Japanese troops would remain in the country.
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The Islamic militant group of Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi said in a video shown on the Internet it had taken a Japanese citizen hostage in Iraq and threatened to execute him if Tokyo does not withdraw its troops from Iraq in 48 hours.
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Al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi&#39;s militant group threatened to behead a Japanese hostage it said worked with Japan&#39;s forces in Iraq if Tokyo did not withdraw its troops from the country within 48 hours.