More than 500 Japanese non-combat ground troops could be sent to southern Iraq in February and March according to a draft plan for their dispatch, Japanese news agency said on Saturday.
Japan has yet to decide when to send troops to Iraq, with voters growing increasingly angry about the dangers involved.
According to a draft plan quoted by the report, an advance unit of 10 members of Japan's air Self-Defence Forces would be sent to Kuwait and Iraq by the end of December, followed by C-130 cargo planes in mid-January. The number of air personnel would eventually total 150, according to the plan.
Transport ships would leave Japan in late January to deliver equipment for the ground troops. About 550 ground troops would then be sent in four waves, commencing in February and lasting into March, the agency quoted the plan as saying.
Meanwhile, EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten has warned that an unstable Iraq will be disastrous.
"If Iraq is in a shambles and acting as a magnet for terrorists, if there's conflict between Shias and Sunni and Kurds, the results for all of us will be a disaster," Patten said in an interview published Saturday in the Hindu newspaper.
"My own view is that we have to see a transfer to a credible set of Iraqi institutions as soon as possible," he added. (Albawaba.com)
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
