Iraq’s interim prime minister warned today that efforts to resolve the stand-off in Fallujah peacefully have entered their “final phase”.

Kidnapped Northern Irish UN worker Annetta Flanigan was today featured in a video released by her captors who are demanding the withdrawal of UK troops from Afghanistan.

The Japanese government confirmed today that a decapitated body found in Iraq is that of a Japanese man taken hostage by Islamic militants earlier this week.

A body found in Iraq resembling a Japanese hostage held by Islamic militants has been examined and is unlikely to be that of the civilian captive, Japan’s top government spokesman said today.

A body found in Iraq resembles 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 today.

Insurgents slaughtered 11 Iraqi soldiers, beheading one, then shooting the others execution-style, and declared on an Islamic militant website that Iraqi fighters would avenge “the blood” of women and children killed in US strikes on the guerrilla stronghold of Fallujah.

The Japanese government convened an emergency session today following a media report that a body believed to be Asian was discovered in Iraq. It was not known whether the body belonged to a Japanese man held hostage by militants who threatened to behead him.