Japan Ends Iraq Mission
The last batch of Japanese troops touched down in Kuwait from southern Iraq on Monday, ending Japan’s largest overseas mission since World War II.
About 220 troops arrived at Kuwait’s Ali al Salem air base from Samawah on C-130 transport planes, Japan’s Defense Agency said in a statement. The contingent was the last of about 600 noncombat soldiers previously stationed in Samawah to distribute water and assist in other humanitarian tasks.
“Our ground forces have bravely completed their mission and have now safely withdrawn to Kuwait,” Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday at the Group of 8 summit of industrialized nations in Russia.
“We carried out our humanitarian and reconstruction tasks without firing a single shot -- in fact, without pointing a gun at anyone,” Koizumi said.
Defense Agency chief Fukushiro Nukaga, who has been in Kuwait since Sunday, greeted the arriving soldiers.
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