Japanese national kidnapped in Iraq

The Army of Ansar Al Sunna militant group said it had seized a Japanese man working at a US base in Iraq.

The militants posted the message a web site along with a picture of a Japanese passport bearing the name Akihiko Saito as well as an identification card saying he was a security manager.

Defence chief Yoshinori Ono said the incident wouldn't affect Japan's deployment of 550 troops on a humanitarian mission in southern Iraq, adding that the safety of those troops had been confirmed.

"We are hurrying to confirm Mr. Saito's whereabouts, and if his reported seizure or serious injury turns out to be true, we must move urgently," Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said. "For now, our top priority is to gather accurate information."

The ministry confirmed that it received information from a British security firm Hart GMSSCO that Saito, a company consultant at its Baghdad office, was ambushed while travelling by car with more than 10 other people in western Iraq on Sunday and went missing. Several of them have reportedly died.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda has said that there had still been no contact with the captors on Tuesday afternoon but two Japanese Embassy officials in Iraq had met with officials of the Iraq government to ask for cooperation.

The Ansar Al Sunnah Army is believed to be a breakaway faction of Ansar Al Islam, a Kurdish-led group with links to Al Qaida.

It has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against Iraqi security forces and twin suicide bombings targeting Kurds in Irbil that killed 109 people in 2004.