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| Sunday, 28 November 2004 |
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Japanese troops return home from Iraq for rotation TOKYO, Saturday (AFP) About 120 Japanese soldiers returned home Saturday from their humanitarian mission to Iraq as part of the third rotation of Japan's 550-strong force dispatched to the war-torn nation. The rotation comes as the Japanese government is expected to extend the troops' mission when it expires next month. "I am filled with the feeling of satisfaction. I am relieved that all of us have come home safely," Lieutenant Colonel Shingo Shimada told reporters after arriving at Aomori airport in northern Japan. They were the first batch of soldiers to return home for the third rotation after working in southern Iraqi city of Samawa for three months. In the first deployment of its kind to a war zone since World War II, the first contingent of Japanese troops was dispatched to Iraq in February despite opposition from the Japanese public. Japan has insisted that its troops in southern Iraq were still in a non-combat zone - a prerequisite for their deployment - though polls have shown most Japanese opposed extending their mission beyond the December 14 end date originally agreed. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, a close ally of US President George W. Bush, is widely expected to extend the mission for another year, however. Debate on the troop deployment has been stirred by the beheading last month of a Japanese hostage after Koizumi rejected demands to withdraw troops from Iraq. Members of the fourth contingent have been leaving Japan in various units, with the last batch of about 120 soldiers expected to arrive in Kuwait next week en route to Samawa, where they are working mainly on water supply, medical support, road maintenance and the renovation of schools. |
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