Japan ends airlift mission in Iraq, completes all undertakings

TOKYO, Dec. 12 Kyodo - Japan's Air Self-Defense Force transport unit completed its Iraqi airlift mission on Friday after making a total of 821 flights during its four years and nine months in the region, the Defense Ministry said.
The completion marks the end of Japan's humanitarian and reconstruction efforts
in Iraq that began almost five years ago in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion
in 2003.
An ASDF passenger aircraft carrying many of the personnel in the unit will
return to Japan from Kuwait on Dec. 23, while three C-130H cargo planes
deployed for the mission are expected to arrive back in the country starting
next week, the ministry said.
After issuing the order to end the mission on Friday, Defense Minister Yasukazu
Hamada thanked via a video link Col. Yasuji Kitamura, who leads the transport
unit, for the service his unit has provided.
''I'm pleased that the transport mission has been completed safely. Please
return to Japan in good spirits and without accidents,'' Hamada said.
An ASDF withdrawal work unit is already at Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base, out
of which the transport unit operated, to complete the mission's withdrawal by
the end of March.
In March 2004, the ASDF began transporting goods and supplies for the Ground
Self-Defense Force, which had started providing humanitarian and reconstruction
aid in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah a few months earlier.
After the GSDF withdrawal from Iraq in 2006, the ASDF ferried personnel and
supplies for U.S.-led multinational forces and the United Nations, connecting
the Kuwaiti base and three airports in Iraq.
The roughly 200-member contingent had transported some 46,500 personnel and
about 673 tons of cargo as of Friday, of which the unit ferried about 2,800
personnel and roughly 112 tons of cargo for the United Nations in 112 flights,
according to the ministry.
A total of some 3,500 ASDF personnel took part in the mission.
==Kyodo