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Report: Japan to Send Troops to Iraq
EFL Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has approved a plan to start sending 1,000 troops for non-combat duty in Iraq by the end of December, a newspaper reported Thursday. The report in the major Mainichi daily came as the bodies of two diplomats slain in Iraq were sent back to Japan. Their deaths, the first Japanese fatalities in Iraq since the start of the U.S.-led war in March, heightened fears that sending troops would make Japan a target of terrorist attacks. But the Japanese people being more sensible than Barbra Striesand rejected these fears. Mainichi said Koizumi made the decision Wednesday after he was briefed about a military fact-finding missionâs trip to Iraq. The Cabinet was expected to approve the dispatch plan next week and Japanâs defense chief, Shigeru Ishiba, would have final say on when the 1,000 air, sea and ground forces would be sent, according to the report. Another national daily, the Yomiuri, said a force of 1,100 would be dispatched to provide medical and other humanitarian aid. Tokyo hopes to have an advance team of air force personnel in Iraq sometime this month and to transport aircraft and troops there by January. Ground forces would follow, arriving in the southern city of Samawah in February, according to the reports. Thank you Japan. Posted by: Steve White 2003-12-04 |
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