Gunmen killed a senior Iranian diplomat in Baghdad Thursday. Khalil Naimi, the first secretary of the Iranian Embassy, was shot in the head while he was in his car near the embassy, Iran's Foreign Ministry official Mohammad Nouri told The Associated Press in Tehran.
Meanwhile, three Japanese civilians taken hostage last week in Iraq have been released in Baghdad, Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera reported Thursday.
The Qatar-based channel said the three were under the protection of the Islamic Clerics Association in the Iraqi capital and were in good health.
The three are Soichiro Koriyama, 32, a freelance photojournalist from Tokyo, Nahoko Takato, 34, a volunteer worker from Chitose, Hokkaido, and Noriaki Imai, 18, from Sapporo.
In Tokyo, ruling Liberal Democratic Party members said the three will be handed over to the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad shortly, Kyodo News Agency reported.
Two 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. They went missing on Wednesday. (Albawaba.com)
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