1st ASDF cargo plane returns to Japan after completing Iraqi ops+

NAGOYA, Dec. 19 Kyodo -
The first of Japan's three Air Self-Defense Force cargo planes involved in
airlifting activities in Iraq returned to Japan on Friday after completing the
mission.
The C-130H aircraft, which left Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait earlier this
week, arrived at Komaki Air Base in Aichi Prefecture shortly before noon, while
two other C-130Hs are also on their way back and due to arrive at the base in
the coming days.
An ASDF passenger aircraft with many of the roughly 200 personnel in the
transport unit aboard is expected to arrive there on Tuesday.
Beginning in March 2004, the ASDF airlifted goods and supplies for Japanese
ground troops deployed to Iraq, connecting the Kuwaiti base and an airfield
near Samawah, where the troops provided humanitarian and reconstruction
assistance.
After the GSDF withdrawal in July 2006, the ASDF began airlifting personnel and
supplies for U.S.-led multinational forces and the United Nations in Iraq,
linking the Kuwaiti base and three Iraqi cities, including Baghdad.
Ruling on the mission, the Nagoya High Court said in April that the ASDF
dispatch to Iraq is unconstitutional as the mission to airlift armed troops
from multinational forces to Baghdad, a war zone, is an act integral to the use
of force by other countries.
Of the roughly 46,500 personnel the ASDF transported in the mission, about
30,000 are believed to have been U.S. troops and others from multinational
forces.
The Japanese government last month ordered the ASDF to pull out of the region.
Japan's decision coincided with the expiration at the end of the year of a U.N.
mandate authorizing the deployment of multinational forces in Iraq and the
inauguration next month of Barack Obama as the new U.S. president. Obama
advocates an early withdrawal from the country.
==Kyodo
2008-12-20 00:01:01