Iraqis freed two Japanese hostages unharmed yesterday, a day after Iraqi resistance fighters released a videotape of a kidnapped US soldier and offered to swap him for prisoners detained by Americans. Iraq's Interior Ministry announced yesterday that it would set up a committee to deal with the mounting spate of kidnappings. Aid worker Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, and freelance journalist, Jumpei Yasuda, 30, were freed at a mosque in western Baghdad and taken to the Japanese Embassy, said Jiro Okuyama, a spokesman for Japan's Foreign Ministry. "It's great that we're free," Watanabe told Japan's NHK television by telephone. He said that he and Yasuda were not threatened by their captors. Despite the release of the Japanese, 15 foreigners are still missing and believed to be kidnapped in Iraq, a spate of hostage taking that has coincided with some of the worst violence in the country since the US-led invasion. It is not clear if the kidnappings have been co-ordinated or if kidnappers have links with each other. Watanabe told NHK the two were released so as not to harm Iraq's relations with Japan. **Families of Italian hostages in Iraq send letter to kidnappers*** The families of three Italian security guards held hostage in Iraq have sent a letter to the kidnappers pleading for mercy. A video message has also been broadcast on the Arabic Al-Jazeera station. "Our boys only went to Iraq to look for work without any ideological motives," said the brother of one of the men. " You too have families and you can understand our anguish. Spare the lives of our boys who have nothing to do with politics. We plead with you to let them return home as soon as possible." One of the four men kidnapped has already been killed. The captors say they will kill the others one by one, every 48 hours, unless Italian troops are withdrawn from Iraq. **US troops to attack Najaf'*** Tension rose in Najaf yesterday as supporters of wanted Moqtada Sadr said mediation efforts with the US-led coalition had failed and they feared American troops were poised to attack. "Mediations with the US side have been halted because the mediators have told us the Americans are putting obstacles towards finding solutions to the crisis and the situation is getting worse," Qais Al Khazaali, the head of Sadr's office told reporters in Najaf. "We are expecting the Americans to attack Najaf any moment now," he said. A Sunni Muslim association in Iraq vowed its support for Sadr yesterday. Mohamed Ayash Al Kubaisi, representative of the Muslim Clerics Association abroad, told Arab television Al Arabiya all Iraqis resisting the US-led occupation were working towards the same goal, including Sadr. Elsewhere, gunmen opened fire on a US convoy near the Spanish base at Diwaniyah, east of Najaf, late yesterday and American forces fired back, said a spokesman for Spanish troops in the occupation force. A coalition soldier died of his wounds on Friday night and two insurgents were killed in clashes east of the Euphrates near Najaf between coalition troops and fighters, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, deputy coalition director of military operations said yesterday. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Aid worker Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, and freelance journalist, Jumpei Yasuda, 30, were freed at a mosque in western Baghdad.