| The militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility in a Web posting Tuesday for the beheading of a Japanese backpacker and claimed Japan had offered millions of dollars in ransom to free him. The Japanese government, which had rejected the kidnappers demands that it withdraw troops from Iraq, denied offering any payment. In the statement on an Islamist Web site, the al-Qaida-affiliated group posted a gruesome video of the slaying of Shosei Koda, whose decapitated body was found wrapped in an American flag in northwestern Baghdad on Saturday. |