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BAGHDAD - Militants freed a Filipino truck driver Tuesday after the Philippines government gave in to their demands to withdraw troops from Iraq to prevent the beheading of the 46-year-old father of eight who had been held captive for two weeks.
Apparently emboldened by their success, insurgents promptly took aim at Japan, threatening in a Web site message to send "lines of cars laden with explosives" to kill its troops in Iraq if they did not leave.
Also Tuesday, the American military said two U.S. Marines and two U.S. soldiers were killed in action in Anbar Province, a Sunni-dominated area west of Baghdad, bringing the death toll of U.S. service members in Iraq to nearly 900.
The two Marines were killed in separate incidents Tuesday while conducting "security and stability operations." One soldier was killed Monday, and a second died Monday of wounds.
More than 60 foreigners have been taken hostage in recent months, and there were fears that the action by the Philippines government would lead to more kidnappings and prompt members of the U.S.-led coalition to think twice about sending, or keeping, their soldiers in Iraq.
"The Filipino withdrawal tells the insurgents that they can continue to chip away at this coalition and make it a coalition of two (Britain and the United States)," said Richard Shultz, a professor of security studies at Tufts University.
In Baghdad, Filipino hostage Angelo dela Cruz was dropped off in front of the United Arab Emirates Embassy on Tuesday, a day after his government withdrew the last of the 51 troops they had stationed here.
The United States and Iraq have criticized the pullout, saying it would endanger others here.
"All of us know that if you appease terrorism, you will sooner or later fall victim to it or be taken over by it," Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, said during a visit to Bahrain.
Soon after dela Cruz's release, his kidnappers - the Khaled bin al-Waleed Corps - took aim at Japan, demanding it pull out 500 troops sent here for medical and reconstruction duty. Japan refused in April to withdraw after three Japanese were kidnapped by Iraqi insurgents. They were released unharmed.
"To the government of Japan: Do what the Philippines has done. By God, nobody will protect you and we are not going to tolerate anybody," the group said in the Web site statement. "Lines of cars laden with explosives are awaiting you; we will not stop, God willing."
The group also told Arab and Islamic governments not to send troops.
"We are warning you for the last time: We will hit with an iron fist all those supporting the Americans or (interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad) Allawi or his cronies."
Allawi had asked some Muslim countries to contribute troops, but so far none has come forward.
Violence continued Tuesay, with a roadside bomb attack on a vehicle near Baquba, north of Baghdad, that killed four civilians and wounded two, said Emad Kamil Rahim, a local hospital official.
Also, in the southern city of Basra, gunmen killed Hazim al-Aynachi, a gubernatorial candidate, and his bodyguard and driver as they were leaving his driveway for work Tuesday morning, council head Abdul Bari Faiyek said.
In Samarra, a hotbed of violence 60 miles north of Baghdad, U.S. forces and militants engaged in running gunbattles, the U.S. military said. Four Iraqis were killed and five were wounded, said Ahmed Jaddo, a hospital official. The military said U.S. soldiers returned fire at insurgents and destroyed the house they were in, while a U.S. warplane flattened another house with a 500-pound bomb.