Japan's Foreign Ministry said Saturday it was trying to verify whether a photo of a dead Asian man posted on the Internet was that of a Japanese security worker kidnapped in Iraq. Late Friday, the Japanese news agency Kyodo said a Web site reportedly operated by the Sunni militant group Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed that Japanese hostage Akihiko Saito had died. Kyodo said the group had posted pictures of the bloodied victim. Foreign Ministry spokesman Akira Chiba said the ministry could not tell whether the image showed Saito, a 44-year-old security consultant who has been missing in Iraq since his convoy was ambushed early in May. Saito worked for Hart Security Ltd., a British security firm based in Cyprus. Saito was among a group of five foreign workers -- four of them confirmed dead -- who were ambushed in the vast Anbar province west of Baghdad.