The Foreign Ministry reissued an evacuation advisory Wednesday to Japanese civilians in Iraq following a series of kidnappings of foreign nationals in the country.

The ministry also advised Japanese nationals not to travel to Iraq.

Other countries such as the Czech Republic, Portugal and Romania issued similar advisories for their nationals in Iraq on Tuesday.

It is the 14th travel warning since the start of this year issued to urge Japanese nationals to evacuate Iraq, and is the second of its kind following the kidnapping of three Japanese civilians in Iraq.

Noriaki Imai, 18, Soichiro Koriyama, 32, and Nahoko Takato, 34,are believed to have been taken captive by an armed group calling itself Saraya al-Mujahideen (Mujahideen Brigades) after they left Amman on April 6 and were heading overland to Baghdad.

Excluding the more than 500 Ground Self-Defense Force troops inthe southern Iraqi city of Samawah, about 70 Japanese citizens, mostly journalists and some members of non-governmental organizations, are in Iraq, according to the ministry.

Source: Xinhua