The last batch of Japanese troops to pull out from Iraq arrived in Kuwait on Monday and will be leaving that country within a week, said Fukushiro Nukaga, Japan's State Minister for Defense.
But some 210 Japanese airmen who transport non-military material into Iraq from airbases in Kuwait will remain "indefinitely" in the Gulf state, Nukaga told a press conference.
"Today, the last batch of ground Self-Defense Forces arrived in Kuwait. They will undergo certain procedures and medical checkup for one week and then will go back home," the minister said.
The group, consisting of 220 personnel, was a part of the several hundred Japanese ground troops on a humanitarian and reconstruction mission in Iraq's southern Muthanna Province.
During their mission in Iraq, the Japanese troops suffered no casualties and did not fire their weapons. The mission relied on British and Australian troops for protection, as Japanese troops are barred from using force.
Nukaga said the Japanese forces "successfully" completed their humanitarian mission in Iraq, which included rebuilding many schools, over 100km of roads and installing water purification machines.
"Providing humanitarian aid and reconstruction was the main aim of the Japanese forces, while preserving security was a secondary goal," Nukaga said.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi ordered the 600 Japanese troops to leave Iraq after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that his government would assume responsibility for security in the province.
Koizumi went ahead with the Iraq deployment despite domestic opposition in a country that has been firmly pacifist for more than six decades.
Nukaga said Japanese airmen will remain in Kuwait "to support multinational forces in improving the living conditions of Iraqis."
TIT-FOR-TAT: The arrest of Filipinos that Manila said were in China as part of a scholarship program follows the Philippines’ detention of at least a dozen Chinese The Philippines yesterday expressed alarm over the arrest of three Filipinos in China on suspicion of espionage, saying they were ordinary citizens and the arrests could be retaliation for Manila’s crackdown against alleged Chinese spies. Chinese authorities arrested the Filipinos and accused them of working for the Philippine National Security Council to gather classified information on its military, the state-run China Daily reported earlier this week, citing state security officials. It said the three had confessed to the crime. The National Security Council disputed Beijing’s accusations, saying the three were former recipients of a government scholarship program created under an agreement between the
Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy O’Keeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle. This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears — mostly sweat — to St Peter’s Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. It is the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who said he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus — and wants others to have the same experience. The outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit
SUSPICION: Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing returned to protests after attending a summit at which he promised to hold ‘free and fair’ elections, which critics derided as a sham The death toll from a major earthquake in Myanmar has risen to more than 3,300, state media said yesterday, as the UN aid chief made a renewed call for the world to help the disaster-struck nation. The quake on Friday last week flattened buildings and destroyed infrastructure across the country, resulting in 3,354 deaths and 4,508 people injured, with 220 others missing, new figures published by state media showed. More than one week after the disaster, many people in the country are still without shelter, either forced to sleep outdoors because their homes were destroyed or wary of further collapses. A UN estimate
Australia’s opposition party yesterday withdrew election promises to prevent public servants from working from home and to slash more than one in five federal public-sector jobs. Opposition leader Peter Dutton announced his conservative Liberal Party had dropped its pledge that public servants would be required to work in their offices five days a week except in exceptional circumstances. “I think we made a mistake in relation to this policy,” Dutton told Nine Network television. “I think it’s important that we say that and recognize it, and our intention was to make sure that where taxpayers are working hard and their money is
RSS