Report: Japan to Begin Pulling Iraq Troops

31 January 2006Yahoo News

Japan will begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq in March and complete the pullout by May, ending its largest military mission since the end of World War II, a news report said Tuesday.

Japan, which extended its noncombat mission to the southern Iraqi city of Samawah for another year in December, will pull its 600 troops out at about the same time that British and Australian forces leave the area, Kyodo News agency said.

The extension of the noncombat mission in December gave the government the right to keep troops in Iraq for a year but did not necessarily guarantee that it would.

Officials from Australia, Britain, Japan and the U.S. reached a basic agreement over the timing of the withdrawals at a secret meeting in London last Monday, Kyodo said. Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force will hand over its camp to local residents after its pullout, according to the report.

A Defense Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing government protocol, said no official decisions had been made regarding Japan's Iraqi mission.