Japan prepared yesterday to send its largest contingent of soldiers to date to help rebuild Iraq, a day after Tokyo vowed to stay on guard against terror attacks in wake of bombings in Madrid.
Around 190 ground troops were greeted by families and fellow army personnel waving Japanese flags and banners as they arrived by bus at Chitose air base on the northern island of Hokkaido.
The troops, including around 10 women, will depart later in the day on a humanitarian mission that critics say violates Japan's pacifist constitution.
After training in Kuwait the troops will join around 250 others who are building a base near the town of Samawa in southern Iraq.
The latest dispatch comes as Japan steps up efforts to win understanding among people in Arab world for its riskiest overseas military mission since World War II.
Japan is to air brief ads on Qatar-based al-Jazeera television to stress that Japanese troops are being sent to Iraq for humanitarian aid and not for combat.
The latest dispatch comes at a time of re-newed jitters in Japan about possible attacks on its soil.
Japan has been on heightened security alert since late last year when the government decided to send troops to Iraq, and concern mounted after media reports said al-Qaeda had threatened to strike at the heart of Tokyo in retaliation.
Japan's non-combat mission could eventually involve around 600 ground troops in Iraq and a total deployment of about 1,000 in the region.
Security concerns came to the fore after bomb blasts ripped through four packed commuter trains in Madrid on Thursday, killing nearly 200 people and wounding almost 1,500.
Japan, one of the closest allies of the US in Asia, said later that authorities need to be on guard against possible attacks.
Japan has already raised security at key locations such as nuclear power plants, government facilities and US bases.
Officials said they did not plan to take any new steps after the Madrid bombings, but remained vigilant.
"We are taking best possible steps for security now," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told reporters on Friday.
"But terrorist acts, by nature, aim for any cracks so we need to think about various issues so that won't happen," he said.
Although Spain says the Basque separatist group ETA remains the prime suspect, a purported al-Qaeda letter claiming responsibility stoked concerns in Japan, which was one of the countries mentioned in the letter.
Japan is also worried about attacks on its nationals in Iraq.
In late November, two Japanese diplomats were gunned down in northern Iraq near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.
Hackles were raised when two Japanese students were detained and later released by police in Samawa on Thursday despite a Foreign Ministry advisory two days before that warned of possible attacks in Samawa and urged all Japanese civilians to leave Iraq.
"I don't think it's good to go there on something like a sightseeing jaunt," Fukuda told reporters on Friday.
Dutch military officials in Samawa told Japan's Defense Ministry the students had been protesting against the US-led occupation of Iraq, Kyodo news agency quoted Japanese officials as saying.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS