Three Japanese Hostages Released

Three Japanese held hostage in Iraq were released Thursday after an agonizing weeklong crisis that divided public opinion and tested the government's commitment to stand by the U.S.-led coalition.

But it was only a partial victory for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who rejected a demand by the kidnappers to pull Japanese troops out of Iraq.

Like Koizumi, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and the country's president dismissed any notion they would give into demands to withdraw Italy's military from Iraq. Italy was in shock Thursday as it mourned the slaying of an Italian hostage in Iraq -- the first known killing of any captive held in Iraq.

Politicians and citizens closed ranks behind Berlusconi's vow to stay the course in Iraq after the slaying, and the government worked frantically to save three other Italian captives.

News that the two Japanese aid workers and a photojournalist had been freed unharmed at a mosque in Baghdad came less than 24 hours after authorities received a report that two other Japanese civilians had been kidnapped.

While the families of those released Thursday cried for joy as the faces of their loves ones flickered across television screens, Japan's foreign minister mixed words of relief with tough talk for other kidnappers.

"We regard hostage taking as an inexcusable criminal act," Yoriko Kawaguchi told a news conference. "The government will not bow to such acts."

Kawaguchi emphasized the government had made no concessions to secure the three captives but declined to discuss details of negotiations that led to their release, which was mediated by a Sunni Muslim group.

She said officials were "making every effort" to get information about the two other missing Japanese — another journalist and a peace activist reportedly kidnapped while trying to film a downed U.S. helicopter outside Baghdad on Wednesday.

The hostage crisis began dramatically last Thursday with the release of a video showing the three hostages kneeling and surrounded by gunmen who vowed to burn them alive unless Japan withdrew a contingent of about 500 troops helping with reconstruction in southern Iraq.

Koizumi refused despite tearful pleas by the hostages' families and polls showing as many as 45 percent of voters favored a pullout. But Thursday's dramatic denouement appeared to justify his stance.

"He did the right thing — he didn't pull out the troops and he didn't deal with terrorists," said Takenori Kanzaki, the leader of a small Buddhist-affiliated political party that is allied with Koizumi's but has given only lukewarm support to his policy of helping the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. "You have to admire his leadership."

The prime minister angered the families of the hostages by refusing to meet with them throughout the crisis. But their exasperation dissolved Thursday in an outpouring of joy and relief that followed the end of their vigil.

"I'm so happy I can't stand it," said Kyoko Takato, whose 34-year-old daughter Nahoko worked with street children in Iraq. "I've been waiting so long for this."

The crisis weighed heavily in a nation already divided over the government's decision to send Japanese troops into a de facto war zone for the first time since World War II. Critics argued that the policy was reckless and violated the nation's pacifist constitution.

The first word of the Japanese hostages' release came from the Arabic TV broadcaster Al-Jazeera, which broadcast images of them in the offices of the Islamic Clerics Committee, the Sunni Muslim group that had worked for their freedom. They were later taken to the Japanese Embassy.

Takato was shown crying into her hands. Noriaki Imai, an 18-year-old activist in Iraq trying to raise awareness about the health effects of depleted uranium munitions, and 32-year-old photojournalist Soichiro Koriyama were shown shaking hands with a Sunni Muslim cleric. All appeared unharmed.

In Italy, the horrifying news seemed to unite a country that is traditionally bitterly divided in its politics and was largely opposed to war in Iraq. The reaction was somewhat similar to when 19 Italians were killed Nov. 12 in southern Iraq — Italy's worst single military loss since World War II.

"All of us must express a very firm condemnation and feel morally and civilly committed to do our part against terrorism," opposition leader Piero Fassino said Thursday, adding that withdrawing the troops would make Iraq "more out of control."

Another center-left leader, former Premier Massimo D'Alema, said, "We don't ask the government to give in to the kidnappers' blackmail.

"At the same time we ask it to take all possible initiatives to achieve the release of the hostages."

Many center-left leaders called on the government to push for greater U.N. involvement, and some minor parties called for a pullout.

Berlusconi made clear the government had no intention of withdrawing the 3,000 Italian troops in Iraq, the third-largest contingent after the United States and Britain.

"They have cut short a life. They have not damaged our values and our commitment to peace," Berlusconi said.

The death of Fabrizio Quattrocchi, a 35-year-old security guard, was announced by the Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera on Wednesday and confirmed by the Italian government hours later — as the foreign minister sat with relatives of the hostages on a TV talk show watched by millions of Italians.

"Horror in Iraq, an Italian hostage killed," said the Milan daily Corriere della Sera. "A barbaric gesture that leaves us in dismay," Rome's Il Messaggero said in a front-page editorial.

L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, spoke of a "merciless execution."

Al-Jazeera said it received a video showing the slaying. The tape was accompanied by a statement from a previously unknown group calling itself the Green Battalion, which threatened to "kill the three remaining Italian hostages one after the other, if their demands are not met," the network said.

The group demanded the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, an apology from Berlusconi, and the release of clerics held in Iraq.

The Italian government has repeatedly said it would not negotiate directly with the kidnappers and would not pay any ransom. The government said an Iranian delegation was headed to Baghdad to help in efforts to secure the release of the Italians, while Berlusconi sent his top diplomatic aide, Gianni Castellaneta, on a mission to Iraq.

The Italian troops were dispatched to Iraq to help with reconstruction.

"The Iraqi mission makes no sense anymore. It was born as a peacekeeping operation and it is turning into a war mission," lamented Carmelina Calabrese, a psychologist.

Quattrocchi worked for a U.S.-based security company, like two other Italian hostages. The fourth captive was employed by a Seychelles-based firm, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said. They were kidnapped Monday.

Frattini recounted the contents of the tape, apparently described to him by the ambassador to Qatar, who watched the video and identified the victim.

"This boy, as the assassins were pointing the gun at him, tried to take off his hood and shouted: 'Now I'll show you how an Italian dies,"' Frattini said, adding, "He died as a hero."