Body Identified as Missing Japanese Man

A Japanese man kidnapped by Islamic militants was decapitated, wrapped in an American flag and left in a Baghdad field where he was found Saturday, officials said.

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura in Tokyo confirmed that the body was that of Shosei Koda, 24.

A group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab Zarqawi had shown Koda, a backpacker, in a video posted online Tuesday.

It demanded that Japan withdraw its noncombat troops from Iraq to prevent Koda’s beheading.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi quickly rejected that demand, saying he would not give in to terrorists.

Japanese Embassy officials in Baghdad sent fingerprints from the body to the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, and police experts there identified the body as Koda’s, Machimura said.

“It is to our great sorrow that after putting all our efforts into securing his release, he has become a victim of terrorism,” Machimura said.

A different body had been found Friday between the towns of Tikrit and Balad, raising fears it was Koda’s. But doctors determined that body was not him.

Hours after Koda’s body was found, a Polish woman held by militants pleaded for her life and asked Poland to remove its troops from Iraq in a videotape aired by Al Jazeera television.

Teresa Borcz-Kalifa, 54, has dual Polish-Iraqi citizenship.

Poland commands 6,000 troops from 15 nations -- including 2,400 from Poland -- in central Iraq. The Warsaw government has ruled out any pullout under pressure.

In a new abduction, a Sudanese interpreter working for a U.S. contractor in Ramadi appeared Saturday on a tape broadcast by an Arabic television station, saying he was kidnapped by a group demanding that his employer, Titan Corp., leave Iraq.

Titan is based in San Diego and is the largest provider of translators to the United States government.

Noureddin Zakaria appeared, surrounded by armed men on Al Arabiya television.

“I hope and call on the company to stop its operations in Iraq to guarantee my release,” he said.