BAGHDAD/TOKYO - A Filipino truck driver released in Iraq after being held hostage for two traumatic weeks headed for Baghdad's airport on Wednesday to leave the country and be reunited with his family.

Kidnappers threatening to behead Angelo de la Cruz freed the father of eight the previous day after the Philippines government withdrew its troops from Iraq. The US and Iraq's interim government both accused Manila of caving into to terrorists.

A source in the Philippines embassy in Amman in Jordan said de la Cruz's wife, who has been waiting in the Jordanian capital for news on her husband, would fly to Abu Dhabi to meet him there.

De la Cruz looked impassive and made no comment as he was driven out of the embassy compound in Baghdad.

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has defended withdrawing Manila's small humanitarian contingent, saying she had to look after eight million Filipino workers abroad.

De la Cruz, 46, said he was well treated by his captors but feared he would die. "At times I felt I may not return to my normal life," he said on his release. "But I received excellent treatment from them - they said I was a good person. That's why, I think, I was released."

Militants had threatened to behead him if the Philippines did not pull its troops out by July 20. They had not been due to depart until August 20.

Japan said it would keep its troops in Iraq despite threats of attacks, purportedly from a group led by suspected al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, if Tokyo did not follow the Philippines and withdraw its 550 non-combat troops in Iraq.

The statement, said to be from Zarqawi, was posted last Tuesday on an Islamist website. A later message disowned the warning.

"For the rebuilding of Iraq, we must continue our support and not give in to terrorism," Japan's Deputy Cabinet Secretary Masaaki Yamazaki told a Tokyo news conference.

The US has offered a US$25 million reward for the capture of Zarqawi, its top militant target in Iraq and blamed for masterminding a spate of kidnappings and bomb attacks.

Japan said it would keep its troops in Iraq despite the threats. The purported statement from Zarqawi, an Islamic militant with suspected ties to al Qaeda had threatened attacks on Japan unless it followed the Philippines and pulled its troops out.

Masaaki Yamazaki said Tokyo was checking on the credibility of the statements but said its stance on Iraq remained unchanged.

Yamazaki declined to comment on the pullout of the Filipino troops.

Attacks continue

Two US army soldiers and two Marines were killed in action in Iraq's Anbar province west of Baghdad on Monday and Tuesday, according to a US military spokesman.

The deaths raise to at least 659 the number of US troops killed in action in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March last year.

One policemen was killed and four wounded in the northern city of Kirkuk in an overnight bomb attack, the National Guard said. In Baquba, north of Baghdad, a bomb attack wounded four policemen.

The US has insisted its coalition in Iraq remains strong despite the Philippines decision to follow Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras in pulling out.

An American, a South Korean and a Bulgarian have now been beheaded by a group led by Zarqawi. Hopes that a second Bulgarian hostage is still alive are fading.

The group led by Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born militant, has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings, assassinations of Iraqi officials and the beheadings of the three hostages.

At least 60 people have been reported kidnapped in Iraq and freed since April.

A Turkish truck driver may have been the latest to be taken hostage, workmates said last Monday.

(Agencies via Xinhua)