The younger brother of a Japanese security worker taken captive in Iraq said on Saturday that a dead body shown in Internet footage posted by an Islamic militant group was of his brother.
The group, called Army of Ansar al-Sunna, posted a video showing identification papers and a passport bearing the name of Akihiko Saito, 44, a former paratrooper and veteran of the French Foreign Legion, who has been missing in Iraq since May 8.
The footage, which was not dated but was seen by Reuters on Saturday, showed the body of a dead man lying on his back with blood covering his face. He appeared to resemble Saito’s pictures.
“I saw the footage and confirmed that it was my older brother,” Hironobu Saito said in a handwritten statement to media organizations, adding that he had conveyed his view to police and to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
A Foreign Ministry official said, however, that the ministry was still making checks.
“The Foreign Ministry will continue to make efforts for confirmation by also collecting information from Hart Security,” the official told Reuters, referring to the British security firm employing Saito.
Iraq’s government condemned the killing of Saito.
“This criminal act will not affect diplomatic relations between Iraq and Japan,” Abd al-Karim al-Enzi, Iraq’s minister of state for national security, said in a statement.
Earlier Japanese citizens killed in Iraq
Six Japanese civilians have been taken hostage since the war in Iraq began.
Backpacker Shosei Koda was beheaded by militants last October, but the others were released unharmed.
In addition, two Japanese diplomats and two Japanese freelance journalists have been killed in Iraq.
Army of Ansar al-Sunna, one of the main Sunni Muslim insurgent groups, has claimed responsibility for attacks against U.S. forces and the Iraqi government and killed several hostages.
Earlier this month, the militant group said it had seriously injured Saito after they abducted him in an ambush of a convoy of cars coming from a U.S. base near Baghdad.