More Japanese forces leave Iraq base
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-06-30 14:21
Transport trucks carrying armoured vehicles and military trucks left the
Japanese military base in southern Iraq on Friday as Japan pushed ahead with its
promised troop pullout.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced earlier this month that Japan
would withdraw its roughly 550 soldiers, engaged in reconstruction and
humanitarian work, from their base in Samawa in the southern province of
Muthanna.
Reuters journalists saw some 20 transporters leave the base carrying jeeps,
armoured personnel carriers and other vehicles.
"There is a transition going on. We are in the process of moving out of
Muthanna and there is some logistics involved in the process," a spokesman for
the British military in Basra said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said this month his forces would take
over security from July in Muthanna, where the British oversee a multinational
contingent that includes Japanese and Australian troops.
The pullout of the troops ends the Japanese military's riskiest and most
ambitious overseas mission since World War Two. No Japanese soldiers have been
killed or wounded in Iraq.
Japan has said its withdrawal from Samawa would be coordinated with Britain
and Australia, whose troops provide security for the Japanese
soldiers.
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