IRAQ: A body found in Iraq resembles that of a Japanese civilian taken hostage by Islamic militants and threatened with death, but the government has not yet positively identified it, a Japanese government official said yesterday.
Mr Hatsuhisa Takashima, a foreign ministry spokesman, said the body was found halfway between the Iraqi cities of Balad and Tikrit, and was being flown to Doha, Qatar, for experts to determine if it was hostage Shosei Koda (24). The body was found by the US military, he said.
"We've been told by the US military that several parts of the body, such as the height, weight and part of the head, resemble Koda," said Mr Takashima. He said the body's head had a bald spot that resembled Mr Koda's. It was unclear whether the head had been severed from the body.
Islamic militants had threatened on Tuesday to behead Mr Koda within 48 hours unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi firmly rejected that demand, saying he would not give in to terrorists.
Mr Takashima said that officials had checked the website of the militant group holding Mr Koda and had found no new information. The group earlier this week posted a video of Mr Koda speaking and militants threatening to kill him.
The Tikrit Joint Co-ordination Centre of the US military was notified early yesterday by an anonymous tip that the body of an Asian male had been brought to the Tikrit hospital. A patrol from the 1st Infantry Division arrived at the hospital and recovered the body, bringing it to a mortuary at a forward operating base in Tikrit, about 50 miles north of Balad.
US marines prepared yesterday to storm the Iraqi cities of Falluja and Ramadi to crush Sunni Muslim insurgents and Arab fighters.
"We are gearing up for a major operation," Brig Gen Denis Hajlik told reporters at a base near Falluja. "If we do so, it will be decisive and we will whack them." Gen Hajlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said the expected assault would involve Iraqi forces.
Iraq's US-backed interim government has vowed to pacify the whole country before nationwide elections due in January.
US aircraft have launched almost daily air strikes on what the military says are safe houses used by a network of Iraqi and foreign fighters led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The latest air raid yesterday killed three Iraqi men and wounded three more civilians, hospital officials said.
A full-scale US-led offensive could be as devastating as a marine attack in April that Washington called off after a world outcry over civilian casualties in Falluja. Local doctors reported more than 600 dead in the fighting.
Meanwhile, British Black Watch troops came under bomb attack as they made their way to their new base close to the Iraqi capital Baghdad, it emerged yesterday. Troops and vehicles were halted in the desert by a series of roadside bombs.
The troops' destination, a military-industrial complex called Camp Dogwood around 15 miles south-west of Baghdad, also came under bombardment.