Suspected kidnapper arrested in Baghdad

Iraqi security forces have arrested a suspect in the 2004 kidnapping and beheading of a Japanese backpacker, officials said Thursday.

Fahmi, who is of Egyptian and Palestinian descent, was captured by the Interior Ministry's counterinsurgency Wolf Brigade after a tip from local residents, al-Mafraji said. "We managed to arrest three other terrorists with him and seized a huge amount of weapons," he said.

Koda was killed by militants in October 2004 after Japan refused to bow to their demands and pull its troops out of Iraq. His decapitated body was found wrapped in an American flag in a Baghdad street.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by the country's most wanted terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping and beheading in a Web posting that included a gruesome video of the killing.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/special_packages/iraq/13997452.htm