ID :
37210
Thu, 12/25/2008 - 06:25
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/37210
The shortlink copeid
Last batch of main ASDF troops return home after ending Iraq mission+
NAGOYA, Dec. 23 Kyodo - About 140 Air Self-Defense Force troops stationed in Kuwait for Japan's airlift mission for Iraq returned to Japan on Tuesday.
They are the last batch of the three C-130H cargo plane crew members returning
from their duties in the past several days. With their homecoming, Japan's
mission in Iraq is largely concluded after four years and eight months.
Some 130 troops remaining there for a backlog of work are scheduled to come
home by March.
The latest batch of troops left Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait earlier and
arrived at Nagoya Airport near the ASDF's Komaki air base in Aichi Prefecture
at around 8:30 a.m.
Starting in March 2004, the ASDF transported goods and supplies for Japanese
ground troops deployed in Iraq from a Kuwaiti base to an airfield near Samawah,
where the troops were providing humanitarian and reconstruction support.
After the Ground Self-Defense Force troops withdrew 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 with three Iraqi cities
including Baghdad.
Of the roughly 46,500 personnel transported by the ASDF during the mission,
more than 30,000 are believed to have been U.S. troops and those from
multinational forces.
The Nagoya High Court ruled in April that the ASDF's airlift activities to and
from Baghdad have violated Japan's war-renouncing Constitution.
''The ASDF mission to airlift armed troops from multinational forces to Baghdad
plays a part in the use of force by other countries,'' thus it can be construed
that Japan itself is using force, the ruling said. The Constitution bans such
use of force.
Japan ordered the ASDF to pull out of the region last month.
Japan's move coincides 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
2008-12-23 21:39:27
They are the last batch of the three C-130H cargo plane crew members returning
from their duties in the past several days. With their homecoming, Japan's
mission in Iraq is largely concluded after four years and eight months.
Some 130 troops remaining there for a backlog of work are scheduled to come
home by March.
The latest batch of troops left Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait earlier and
arrived at Nagoya Airport near the ASDF's Komaki air base in Aichi Prefecture
at around 8:30 a.m.
Starting in March 2004, the ASDF transported goods and supplies for Japanese
ground troops deployed in Iraq from a Kuwaiti base to an airfield near Samawah,
where the troops were providing humanitarian and reconstruction support.
After the Ground Self-Defense Force troops withdrew 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 with three Iraqi cities
including Baghdad.
Of the roughly 46,500 personnel transported by the ASDF during the mission,
more than 30,000 are believed to have been U.S. troops and those from
multinational forces.
The Nagoya High Court ruled in April that the ASDF's airlift activities to and
from Baghdad have violated Japan's war-renouncing Constitution.
''The ASDF mission to airlift armed troops from multinational forces to Baghdad
plays a part in the use of force by other countries,'' thus it can be construed
that Japan itself is using force, the ruling said. The Constitution bans such
use of force.
Japan ordered the ASDF to pull out of the region last month.
Japan's move coincides 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
2008-12-23 21:39:27
