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Japan issues travel warning following al-Qaeda threats

Alarmed by threats purportedly made by the al-Qaeda terrorist network to attack US allies, the Japanese government has issued an alert for citizens traveling or living abroad.

Monday's alert was the latest in a series of travel advisories issued by the Foreign Ministry. A previous alert was issued Oct. 28 after a videotape purportedly by Osama bin Laden threatened suicide attacks on the US and the countries supporting the American occupation of Iraq, including Japan, Britain, Spain, Australia, Poland and Italy.

Japan was among the first to back the US-led war against Iraq, and is considering a dispatch of troops to help with reconstruction. But the government has largely waffled on such plans fearing an escalation of violence in the region.

The ministry's latest alert was issued after two London-based Arabic-language newspapers received separate statements over the weekend threatening car bomb attacks against the US, Britain, Italy, Australia and Japan.

In a travel advisory posted on the Foreign Ministry Web site Monday, the ministry urged Japanese tourists and residents to use "utmost caution."

"In light of the statement purportedly by al-Qaeda threatening terror attacks, please obtain the latest information, stay away from facilities that are likely to become terror targets, use caution in crowded places and pay attention to what's around you to avoid possible terror attacks or any other trouble," it said.

National Public Safety Commission chief Kiyoko Ono told reporters yesterday that Japanese authorities were still trying to verify and gauge the risk level of the latest terror threats.

"So far, we have not found any signs [of impending attacks]," Ono said, adding that Japanese police will continue the tightened security measures adopted after the September 2001 attacks in the US.

The threats over the weekend in the daily al-Quds Al-Arabi and weekly al-Majallah came after Tokyo said last week it would delay -- but not abandon -- long-discussed plans to send peacekeepers because of deteriorating security in southern Iraq. Tokyo has also offered US$1.5 billion in grants for next year and US$3.5 billion in loans for the following three years for the reconstruction effort.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said yesterday the government would carefully consider the possibility and timing of a dispatch after receiving word from a fact-finding mission that left for Iraq on Saturday to assess security there, Kyodo News reported.

A day earlier, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi condemned the terrorist threats saying Japan would not "give in" to them.

According to al-Majallah, an alleged al-Qaeda operative identified as Abu Mohamed al-Ablaj in an e-mail warned Tokyo against sending troops to Iraq to help with postwar reconstruction.

The statements claimed responsibility for the attack that killed 23 people in Turkey on Saturday and the Nov. 12 car bombing outside the Italian police headquarters in Iraq that claimed more than 30 lives. They also contained a warning to US President George W. Bush and his allies.
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