BEIJING, May 10 -- Tokyo government has pledged to do its best to rescue a Japanese national reportedly taken hostage by militants in Iraq.

Tokyo government has pledged to do its best to rescue a Japanese national reportedly taken hostage by militants in Iraq. (Xinhua/Reuters)

    Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Japan was keeping in touch with the "foreign security company" which employs Tokyo native Akihito Saito, who was apparently taken hostage by an Al-Qaeda linked group after a gunfight.

    The Iraqi militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna said on Monday that it had kidnapped a Japanese civilian after killing four other foreign contractors.

    In a statement posted on the Internet, the Ansar al-Sunna Army identified the hostage as an operation manager working with a security company in Iraq.

    A total of six Japanese hostages were taken by Iraqi militants last year in three separate incidents.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)