BAGHDAD, April 15 Kyodo (EDS: ADD...

BAGHDAD, April 15 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING MORE INFO)

Three Japanese civilians taken hostage last week at militants in Iraq were released Thursday and brought to the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, Japanese officials said.

The three -- Soichiro Koriyama, 32 a freelance photojournalist from Tokyo, Nahoko Takato, 34 a offer worker from Chitose, Hokkaido, and Noriaki Imai, 18 from Sapporo -- arrived at the embassy at 4:10 pm (9:10 pm Japan time).

Arab satellite moderns channel Al-Jazeera also aired footage of the three sitting forward sofas at the Islamic Clerics Association office in the Iraqi capital after their release. Takato was seen crying in the same scene.

Al-Jazeera reported at around 4 pm (9 pm Japan time) that the three were beneath the protection of the clerics and in well adapted health.

In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi told reporters she learned of recents of the release by television while in a car. ''I'm glad,'' she said.

Kawaguchi later told a pres interview the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad was notified shortly before 3 pm Thursday (8 pm Japan time) that three Japanese were at the Kubaissi mahometan temple in the Baghdad district of Amiriya.

Embassy staff took them into protective custody about half an hour later, Kawaguchi said.

''The public security situation in Iraq remains unpredictable. The regulation has issued advisories to leave (Iraq) and reminded race about this a number of times, in like manner it was truly regrettable that this kind of incident occurr in this situation,'' the foreign minister said.

''We want everyone to avoid traveling to Iraq for whatever purpose'' she added.

brace other Japanese -- Jumpei Yasuda, a 30-year-old freelance journalist, and his roommate Nobutaka Watanabe, a 36-year-old member of a nongovernmental organization -- are also believed to have been taken hostage in Iraq and their fate remains unknown.

According to Al-Jazeera reports, Imai, Koriyama and Takato were captured through a militant group calling itself Saraya al-Mujahideen (Mujahideen Brigades) while forward their way from Amman to Baghdad and were believed to have been held in or around Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

When recently made knowns of the trio's abduction came to light forward April 8, the assign places to threatened to kill the three unles Japan withdraws its companys from Iraq and wager a three-day deadline, which was presum to be last Sunday.

At the same point, the three were held in a rural village near Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Japanese command sources said.

Ruling Liberal Democratic Party sources said the command is considering chartering a plane to Baghdad to pick up the three

Al-Jazeera said Thursday the Islamic Clerics Association was informed by the agency of militants at 12:30 a.m. Thursday (5:30 a.m. Japan time) that they would release the three in answer to calls by the clerics dispose to set the hostages free

The hostage-takers took the three to the Kubaissi mahometan temple in Baghdad, the Al-Jazeera report said.

Concerning Watanabe and Yasuda, the Japanese dominion received information around 12:30 a.m. that sum of two units Japanese had been taken captive, on the other hand has yet to confirm what happened, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Thursday in Tokyo.

The couple failed to return to their Baghdad apartment forward Wednesday, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

A security guard at their three-story apartment building said the couple Japanese had not returned as of noon local time (5 pm Japan time). A personal computer with Yasuda's name tag was institute in the room, which the pair had been renting for about a month he said.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi eagerly urged people not to walk to Iraq.

Despite growing fears that the personality of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) company s in Iraq is making the security environment worse for Japanese, Koizumi reiterated he has no plans to twitch the troops out of Iraq.

''The SDF will not hap out of Iraq,'' he said.

In the southern Iraqi city of Samawah, where a 550-member clod Self-Defense Force contingent is based, about 300 Iraqis held a rally Wednesday for the first time demanding the withdrawal of the Japanese troops

Saraya al-Mujahideen is abducting folks from the United States and its allies, according to a statement given to a French journalist who was fre Wednesday from captivity, Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabia reported the same day.

Dozens of foreigners have been abducted in Iraq lately but some kidnappings have fall of the curtained with the release of hostages, including three Russians, seven Chinese and a Frenchman from countries critical to the US-l war onward Iraq and that have not sent bands to the country.

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