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Baghdad blast not to affect Japan's troops dispatch to Iraq

PLA Daily 2004-01-20

TOKYO, Jan. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan's plan to send troops to Iraq will not be affected by a suicide bombing in Baghdad on Sunday outside the US-led coalition headquarters, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said Monday.

"In Samawah (where Japan is to send ground troops), we have seen no change in the situation. I expect that we will provide reconstruction assistance as planned," the top government spokesman told a news conference.

Japan sent an advance team of the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) on Friday to prepare for the planned dispatch of a core GSDF contingent later this month or in February to Samawah, about 250 kilometers southeast of Baghdad. The government said they would engage in reconstruction work and helping supply clean water in the city.

The government also planned to use C-130 transport planes of the Air Self-Defense Force, which are now in Kuwait, to fly supplies to Baghdad for the coalition forces in Iraq.

Fukuda dismissed worries that the Japanese aircraft could be attacked while operating in or near Baghdad.

"We've heard that it will be safe if they take off or land in aspecial way at Baghdad airport," he said.

The car bomb attack in Baghdad on Sunday killed at least 20 people, mostly Iraqi civilians, near the headquarters of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority.