UK TOP SECRET Postman Patel: Thursday: Iraq 72 dead, 400 so far in May, Japanese Hostage held.

Waves of suicide bombers and IED attacks - result - 72 deaths in Iraq yesterday. Since the new “government” was announced 2 weeks ago, nearly 400 people have died.

In Tikrit, a car bomb exploded at 6:30 a.m., killing 32 wounding 90 more, according to doctors at Tikrit General Hospital. A sniper fired on Iraqi police who arrived on the scene.

In Hawija, Police Col. Abdul-Fattah Obaidi said a man jumped out of an Opel car and ran toward a line of army recruits, blowing himself up as they waited to fill out applications. The blast blew out windows of Hawija Hospital. Police closed streets nearby afterward and imposed a curfew.

The number of “insurgent” attacks has almost doubled since March to at leastv a reported 70 a day.

As the suicide bombers were at work a massive U.S. Marine offensive near the Syrian border in western Iraq continued into its fourth day. In a string of villages near the town Rummana, north of the Euphrates River, commanders reported “insurgents” and foreign fighters had largely dispersed.

''The area appears devoid of military-aged males. It's mostly women and children,'' said Col. Bob Chase, operations chief for the 2nd Marine Division, leading the assault is reported to say in the Washington Post.

Chase said no Marine casualties had been reported as of Wednesday evening although saying he had received unconfirmed reports of mine and improvised bomb explosions and that casualties could have resulted.
The insurgent group Ansar al Sunna (Arabic ; انصار الاسلام, Supporters of Islam) showed an Identity card with photographs accompanying the statement giving a Japanese hostage’s name as Akihiko Saito.

Images posted on the group’s website show an injured Aikito Saito, who is a 44-year-old consultant for Hart Security Ltd. (Hart Security was founded in 1999 and has offices in London, New York, Singapore, Moscow and Kuwait and a forward Iraq base in Cyprus), with 2 years experience in the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's (GSDF) airborne troops, and 20 years with the French Foreign Legion.

Saito was apparently authorized to carry a weapon in Iraq. He was helping transport cargo from Baghdad to a U.S. base in Al-Asad 150 kilometers (93 miles) west of Baghdad and was ambushed after leaving the camp, “The ambush was complex and well planned, incorporating the use of multiple improvised explosive devices (IED), Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG), machine gun fire and small arms fire.” Say Hart Security. The attack took place at 6:30 p.m. local time in Iraq on Sunday. Saito was the only Japanese employee of the company.

Sato is the only foreign survivor of the ambush. Reuters claim a video will soon be shown of him by the Army of Ansar al-Sunna. Hart Security say he may have died from his injuries.

Interestingly Hart’s founder, Hart's founder, Lord Westbury, (Richard Bethell, Old Harrovian, a former SAS and Scots Guards officer, also CEO of the mysteriously well connnected Defence Systems Limited (DSL) ) admitted in a Radio4 File on 4 program in May 2004…“conditions were tough”, but said ,“his firm would never jeopardise people's lives."

"You cannot guarantee in a new country with very poor infrastructure that your communications are going to be absolutely brilliant," he said. "But we have had no problems with communications that have caused anything to go wrong at all."

It is understood that Operatives of Saito's experience would expect to be paid (tax free) £400 per day when working in Iraq.

In the same programme (then) Foreign Office Junior Minister Bill Rammell said it was sometimes necessary to use private contractors.

He added, “ that any allegations of misconduct or inadequate training among security operations under contract to British authorities would be properly investigated. “ The Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the Britons' deaths on recently reported (12 in the previous 12 months according to the FO) were ,"shocking and showed the risks civilians had to take in Iraq."

Five Japanese have been killed in Iraq since on Nov. 28, 2003, two Japanese diplomats -- Katsuhiko Oku and Masamori Inoue were seized and later killed. Freelance journalists Shinsuke Hashida and Kotaro Ogawa were killed in Mahmoudiya, 30 km south of Baghdad on May 27, 2004. and On Oct. 26, 2004, film on a website showing Japanese civilian Shosei Koda with Islamic extremists, who threatened to behead him unless Japan withdrew its troops from Iraq within 48 hours. A body identified as his was found Baghdad on Oct. 31 2004.

Japan has about 500 troops in the south of Iraq helping in reconstruction and peacekeeping efforts following the U.S. invasion in 2003, a move that has been unpopular among the Japanese public.

President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Interim Self-Government Authority will visit Japan from 15 to 17 May and meet the Prime Minster as will Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Abdullah of Afghanistan who will be in Japan from 17 to 19 May.