TOKYO - Japan will pull its troops out of Iraq within the next few months, a top government minister was quoted as saying Sunday, in the first such indication of a timeframe for withdrawal. “The Ground Self-Defense Force will be withdrawn within months,” Kyodo News quoted Assistant Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kyoji Yanagisawa as saying in a speech in Tokyo on Saturday. “The exit from Iraq is this year’s biggest theme,” he added, without offering a more specific timetable.
But Kyodo quoted other unnamed government sources as saying JapanÂ’s 600-odd troops would start pulling from the relatively stable southern Iraqi city of Samawa by the end of May.
The Japanese troops are tasked with helping reconstruction efforts while British and Australian forces maintain security in the area. The Japanese troops are accompanied by some 200 vehicles and more than 1,000 weapons, meaning they would require more than two months to withdraw, Kyodo said.
| Not a problem, the south-central region has been secure for a while now. |
The report said Tokyo would decide when to pull the troops out depending on the movements of British and Australian forces in the region and the general security situation. The plan was reported to have been agreed at a January meeting between Britain, the United States, Australia and Japan and approved by Washington in principle, if the political and security situation in Iraq does not worsen. |