イラクで日本人拘束

"The two were safely taken into the protection of Japanese embassy staff in Baghdad" at about 0830 GMT, foreign ministry spokesman Kinjo Nakagun told AFP in Tokyo.


The news of the release was relayed immediately to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Jiji Press agency said.


Freelance journalist Junpei Yasuda, 30, and peace activist Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, disappeared Wednesday but the Japanese government only confirmed their "likely" kidnapping earlier Saturday.


Sheikh Abdul Salam Kubaissi, an official at the Committee of Muslim Scholars, told AFP in Baghdad: "The two were released, they are next to me."


"They are in very good health," he said.


Images of the two men, apparently in good health, with Kubaissi were broadcast on Japanese public