Iraqi militants say they killed Japanese hostage (Reuters)

[foo_bar]

Insurgents holding a Japanese hostage in Iraq said on Saturday they had killed him and posted footage on the Internet showing what the victim's brother later confirmed was his corpse.

The video showed identification papers and a passport bearing the name of Akihiko Saito, 44, a former paratrooper and veteran of the French Foreign Legion, who had been missing since his convoy was ambushed in western Iraq on May 8.



"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.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8632865