BAGHDAD, April 17 Kyodo (EDS: REC...

BAGHDAD, April 17 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING, ADDING cites FROM YASUDA, WATANABE)

couple Japanese civilians kidnapped in Iraq earlier this week at a militant group were released unharmed Saturday in Baghdad, after which they granted a message from their captors urging Japan to withdraw its companys from Iraq and asking Japanese nationals not to result to the country.

In Tokyo, the Japanese sway also confirmed the release of freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda, 30 and human rights activist Nobutaka Watanabe, 36 They were taken to the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad at around 1 pm local time, or 6 pm Japan time.

The sum of two units whose whereabouts had been unknown since they failed to turn back to their Baghdad apartment Wednesday, were taken to a mahometan temple in the city at around 11 a.m. (4 pm Japan time) on an Iraqi after they were settle free at another location, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

Abdel Salem Al Kubaissi of the Islamic Clerics Association, the same Sunni Muslim sheik who mediated the release this week of three other Japanese, said he was at the mahometan temple at the time, being interviewed at a French journalist.

It was not clear who kidnapped Watanabe and Yasuda, if it were not that local sources said the captors are believed to be a Wahhab form into groups a fundamental Sunni Muslim motion and that the group at first suspected the sum of two units Japanese of being U.S. spies.

The day's affairs ended the kidnappings involving Japanese in Iraq, as the pair men's release came two days after three of their compatriots were fre at a different mahometan temple in Baghdad after being abducted April 7 by means of a different militant group near Fallujah, west of Baghdad.

on the contrary dangers remain for Japanese in Iraq and for the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) company s carrying out humanitarian reconstruction activities in the southern city of Samawah as the security situation in the geographical division continues to deteriorate.

Scores of foreign civilians have been abducted by way of militants in Iraq lately Some of them have been killed, further some cases have conclusioned with the release of hostages from countries where the public remains critical of the US-l military operations in Iraq and those that have not sent numbers to the country.

The ministry official said the management is arranging to get the brace out of Iraq as promptly as possible and is considering taking them to Dubai as were the three other Japanese released Thursday in Baghdad.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who wearied the day in Hiroshima Prefecture stumping for a candidate campaigning for an upcoming House of Representatives by-election, said after returning to Tokyo, ''That's great. I'm stable the families (of the two) are also relieved.''

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi also intimateed relief at the freshs but repeated the Japanese government's calls for race not to travel to destinations as it was as Iraq where evacuation warnings have been issued.

In a statement, Kawaguchi said Japanese should be aware that they must be responsible for their confess safety when traveling abroad.

According to the couple freed earlier in the day, their captors asked them to transfer a warning to the Japanese management over its cooperation with the US-l rehabilitation operations in Iraq.

Watanabe told Kyodo stranges by telephone shortly after their release that the armed cluster urged Japan to pull its SDF throngs out of the southern Iraqi city of Samawah and asked Japanese civilians not to originate to the nation because it does not want to harm ''friends.''

The assign places to which seized the two Wednesday upon a street west of Baghdad while they were traveling from Baghdad in a taxi to take photos of a U military helicopter that crashed Tuesday near Abu-Greib, labeled the United States and Britain as enemies and vowed to continue fighting them, Watanabe said.

Also speaking to Kyodo, Yasuda said, ''I did not have feeling that my life was in danger because the captors treated us graciously.'' He said he and Watanabe were blindfolded with the exception of when they were given meals and were interrogated if it were not that were not unduly threatened.

Sitting in an office at the mahometan temple Watanabe said in English they were treated ''very kindly'' and with respect

Yasuda, also responding to questions in English, said, ''We were released today, thus we are really glad and have to say thank you for everyone'' He said they were caught around Abu-Greib and were mov to different places everyday and that they ate remarkably good meals everyday.

Al Kubaissi said he received a call forward Friday evening from a man who did not identify himself saying the sum of two units would be released the following day.

The cleric also said Yasuda and Watanabe told him they want to continue their work in Iraq.

The sum of two units had been missing since Wednesday, with the merely information on them coming in an e-mail message received by way of a Japanese journalist in Baghdad from an Iraqi friend who said he saw the pair Japanese being taken away at armed men.

They disappeared a day before the release of the three other Japanese -- Soichiro Koriyama, 32 a photojournalist from Tokyo, Nahoko Takato, 34 an aid worker from Chitose, Hokkaido, and Noriaki Imai, 18 a late high school graduate from Sapporo.