Five family members of two Japanese journalists thought killed in Iraq have arrived in Kuwait to try to identify charred remains thought to be theirs. Bodies believed to be those of Shinsuke Hashida, 61, and his nephew Kotaro Ogawa, 33, were recovered after their car was ambushed on Thursday. If the deaths are confirmed, it will bring to four the number of Japanese killed in Iraq since the invasion.

Mr Hashida?s wife Yukiko and his son Daisuke flew into Kuwait City along with Mr Ogawa?s mother Yoko, her husband Hiroshi and their other son Shuji. A Japanese forensic pathologist is accompanying the families to confirm the identity of the bodies using dental records. It is believed that the families hope to return to Japan today along with the remains of their loved ones.

The journalists and two Iraqis working for them ? an interpreter and a driver ? had been returning to Baghdad from the town of Samawa, where more than 500 Japanese troops are stationed.

They were attacked near the town of Mahmudiya, about 30 km south of the capital and long regarded as a danger area for the coalition and foreign nationals. The vehicle was set on fire, but the driver managed to escape and, after treatment for injuries in a local hospital, said the vehicle had been struck by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Three bodies were recovered from the scene, one of which is thought to be that of the interpreter. Mr Hashida, a veteran war reporter, was contributing to the Japanese tabloid Nikkan Gendai along with his nephew. Gendai?s editor-in-chief, Hirotaka Futatsuki, told Mr Hashida had been planning to bring back an Iraqi boy with an eye injury for medical treatment in Japan.

Last November, two Japanese diplomats were killed near the northern city of Tikrit when their car was ambushed. In April, five Japanese were briefly taken hostage by militants demanding coalition troops be withdrawn. The latest attack may renew unease at Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi?s decision to send Japanese troops to Iraq, where they perform humanitarian duties. A group of 140 of the troops flew home on Sunday, completing the first rotation of troops after three months of deployment.