Japan will send Self-Defense Forces elements to the southern Iraq city of Samawa if the ruling coalition comes out on top in the upcoming election, according to a senior Dutch military officer quoting a Japanese fact-finding mission.
The officer said Wednesday that during a meeting earlier this month, senior SDF and Foreign Ministry members of the mission told him that Japan intends to set up an SDF operational base near the Dutch base in Samawa.
The mission returned last week after spending nearly a month in Iraq to study the local security and other conditions. After its return, the government resumed working on its plan to send an advance team of about 100 SDF troops by the end of the year to either Samawa or Nasiriya, another city in the southern part of the country.
Samawa has not experienced any attacks against occupation forces since April and is considered the safest area in Iraq, according to a senior official of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority for the region.