Militants threaten to behead Japanese hostage

Masked militants today threatened to behead a Japanese hostage within 48 hours unless Japan pulls its troops out of Iraq.

A video on a militant Islamic website showed the man, kidnapped by al Qaida, dressed in a white T-shirt. He was identified only as someone connected to the Japanese armed forces.

He spoke briefly in English and Japanese, before one of three masked militants standing behind him read a statement.

“They want to withdraw the Japanese troops from Iraq or cut my head,” the man said.

One of the militants said Japan had 48 hours to withdraw the troops “otherwise his fate will be the same as his predecessors, Berg and Bigley and other infidels”.

The video bore the logo of al Qaida in Iraq, the new name for the Tawhid and Jihad group of terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The group has claimed responsibility for the beheadings of British engineer Kenneth Bigley and US businessman Nicholas Berg.