Iraqi kidnappers threaten to burn hostages

BLACK-GARBED captors with guns, knives and swords threatened to burn alive three blindfolded Japanese hostages unless Tokyo removed its troops from Iraq, according to a videotape seen on Arab TV.

Japan said it had "no reason" to withdraw.

Eight South Korean missionaries who had been seized by gunmen outside Baghdad were later released in good condition, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said. Two Arab aid workers including one who had once lived in Georgia also were abducted in a separate incident.

The kidnappings of foreigners represented a new tactic to pressure their governments, which are allied with the United States. It could affect UN workers, journalists, aid workers, Christian missionaries, security personnel and those doing business with the Iraqi government.

The kidnapping of the three Japanese civilians a male and a female aid worker and a male journalist was a blow to Japan's Iraq policy, which has divided public opinion and raised concern that its troops could be targeted by insurgents or drawn into the fighting.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda called the abductions "unforgivable", but said they did not justify a Japanese withdrawal.

In the videotape, the captives were shown blindfolded and crouching on the floor of a concrete walled room with an iron door. Standing behind them were four masked gunmen in black, holding automatic weapons and RPG launchers.

The gunmen made the Japanese lie on the floor, pointing swords and knives at their chests and throats. The woman's lips could be seen moving as if she was speaking.

One gunman put a knife to the throat of a man, whose eyes widened in panic, and he struggled against his captor. The woman wept and hid her eyes as another gunman tried to pull her hands away from her face and he pressed a knife toward her throat.

Tokyo has sent 530 troops to the southern city of Samawah, part of a planned deployment of 1,100 on a non-combat mission to purify water and help rebuild Iraq Japan's first deployment of troops since World War II.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been one of the strongest backers of the US-led invasion, a stance that has raised concern Japanese troops could become targets.

According to Al-Jazeera, the Japanese were taken in southern Iraq by a group identifying itself as the Mujahedeen Squadrons, which the TV network said gave a three-day ultimatum for Japan to announce it will withdraw its troops or they would be killed.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry reported that all eight captives from that country had been freed. The evangelical Christians had left in two cars on April 5 from Amman, Jordan, when they were seized by gunmen about 155 miles east of Baghdad, said one of the freed South Koreans.

Earlier this week, two South Korean aid workers were briefly detained by Shiites in a gunbattle with Italian peacekeepers. They were released unharmed.

Israeli media reported two Arab residents of Jerusalem including one with a US driver's licence from the state of Georgia who works for an American aid agency were kidnapped.