3 Japanese to Be Freed; Other Hostages Taken

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3 Japanese to Be Freed; Other Hostages Taken
BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi insurgent group which had abducted three Japanese nationals will release the hostages within 24 hours, an Arab television network reported. This news came as kidnappings of foreigners continued to spread across Iraq Saturday as insurgents in many cities resorted to unorthodox tactics against coalition forces and non-combat personnel.

A group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Squadrons" told Al Jazeera, the television network, that they had agreed to release the hostages after mediation by the Islamic Clerics Committee, an Iraqi Sunni Muslim organization.

In other kidnappings, Reuters also reported that a group calling itself the "Marytr Ahmed Yassin Brigades" in the city of Ramadi was holding 30 foreigners from a variety of countries hostage and threatening to decapitate them if American forces did not retreat from Fallujah.

The abduction of the three Japanese in Iraq has plunged Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi into his deepest crisis since taking office three years ago, as relatives of the hostages and thousands of protesters pressed the government Friday to withdraw Japanese troops from Iraq.

Ruling party officials vowed not to give in to terrorists and reiterated that Japanese soldiers would continue their humanitarian mission in Iraq. Koizumi denounced as "cowardly" the Iraqi captors' threat to burn the three civilian hostages alive unless Tokyo gives in.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,116750,00.html