Smash hit

“There will be a united front on this issue,” he said. “The insurgents will not be allowed to knock us off course.”But there were unmistakable signs of alarm among America’s smaller allies in Iraq. Kazakhstan has announced that it will pull its troops out of Iraq next month. South Korea said that its troops had been forced to suspend their humanitarian work. Germany announced the withdrawal of its civilian aid workers.

The kidnapping of the three Japanese creates a particularly acute crisis for Mr Koizumi, who has emerged as one of Mr Bush’s most loyal supporters on Iraq, though a spokesmen insisted last night that Japan would not withdraw its 550 ground troops.

The victims of the kidnap, by a hitherto unknown group calling itself Saraya al-Mujahidin (Mujahideen Brigades), are Soichiro Koriyama, a 32-year-old freelance photographer, Nahoko Takato, a 34-year-old female humanitarian volunteer, and an 18-year -old boy named Noriaki Imai who left school last month. They met in Amman, and were seized on the notoriously dangerous road linking the Jordanian capital with Baghdad.

Mr Koizumi, since dispatching members of the Self-Defence Forces to southern Iraq earlier this year, has been braced for the deaths of his own soldiers. Hours before news of the kidnapping, he insisted that his determination would not be shaken by acts of violence after shells exploded close to the Japanese base in the town of Samawa. But the capture of three civilians, including one who under Japanese law is still a child, will generate a wave of public sympathy and anxiety.

Pulling out the SDF now would irreparably damage Mr Koizumi’s credibility, both domestically and internationally. But if the hostages are killed, the reaction among the Japanese public and Mr Koizumi’s political enemies has the potential to bring down his Government.

Mr Koizumi has been accused of sacrificing principle and self-interest in order to please the United States. Japan’s physical contribution to the coalition effort in Iraq is relatively small, but the support of the world’s second- richest country is symbolically valuable. The fall of Mr Koizumi would deprive Mr Bush and Mr Blair of one of their most stalwart supporters. Much now depends on the Japanese Government’s handling of the crisis and the development of public opinion over the next few days.

“It seems the Government is not considering withdrawing the SDF, but we want them to come home safely,” Shuichi Takato, the younger brother of Nahoko Takato, told The Times last night. “We all know why the Japanese Government sent the SDF to Iraq. Is the big country (the US) so important?”.

The seven South Korean evangelists were abducted at gunpoint yesterday while driving from Amman to Baghdad. An eighth escaped when her Iraqi driver drove off with her still in the car. Her colleagues were freed once they were able to confirm their nationality, and told South Korean news networks that they had been escorted back to Baghdad by their captors. The Seoul Government insisted that the kidnappings would not affect its plans to send 3,600 troops to Iraq. Two Labour MPs last night demanded the recall of Parliament on Monday because of the “dire” situation in Iraq.

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