AMMAN (Kyodo) A man believed to be a member of a group close to al-Qaida has admitted killing Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda, 24, in 2004, saying the victim was beheaded because Japan did not comply with a demand to withdraw its troops from Iraq, a senior Baghdad police official said Thursday.
Hussein Fahmi Badr, who has been detained by Iraqi authorities, was also quoted by the official as saying he thought Koda, a private citizen who did not belong to any nongovernmental or media organization, may have come to Iraq as a spy.
Badr said he was asked to kill Koda in return for money from a different group that abducted him, according to the official.