Japan has put plans to airlift goods to Baghdad's airport on hold after a deadly mortar attack highlighted security concerns for its troops, reports said yesterday.
Japan's 200 air force personnel and three C-130 aircraft stationed in Kuwait were to begin transporting humanitarian goods into Iraq in mid-February using airports in Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and Balad.
But it has put off trips to Baghdad until after an investigation is completed into a mortar attack near Baghdad International Airport that killed one US soldier and wounded another Thursday, the Asahi and Nihon Keizai newspapers reported.
Defense Agency officials could not be reached for comment.
Shigeru Ishiba, director general of the agency, told reporters Friday he would order an inquiry into the incident.
"It could have a major impact" on the activities of Japan's Air Self-Defense Forces, Ishiba said.
The Japanese government's plan for using troops to provide humanitarian assistance in Iraq stipulates that it must be carried out "in areas where combat is not taking place and is not expected to take place."
The first group of 86 members of Japan's main contingent of ground troops is expected to roll into Iraq tomorrow from their base in Kuwait, joining an advance team of 39 troops who entered southern Iraq near Samawa last month.
The dispatch is Japan's first to a country where fighting is ongoing since World War II. All 600 ground troops are expected to be in place by the end of next month.
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