Japan may ask U.S. and British coalition forces to guard Self-Defense Forces troops in Iraq due to the worsening security situation there, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Sunday.
"Because there are terrorists attacking the International Red Cross, there could be cases where we cannot provide medical assistance at hospitals without protection from the U.S. and British forces," Koizumi said on a Fuji TV program.
The prime minister, in a series of morning television shows, also reiterated his desire to legitimize the SDF as the "national military" by revising the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.