- TOKYO (Reuters) - Two explosions
were heard near Japan´s Defense Ministry late Tuesday and police
said they might have been caused by radicals opposed to the dispatch of
Japanese troops to Iraq. Police said they found two steel pipes that appeared
to have been used to launch projectiles from the grounds of a temple near
the ministry.
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- A Defense Ministry official said he was unaware of any
injuries or damage at the ministry, but that security officials were still
making checks. The explosions occurred at about 11 p.m.
-
- Japan has been nervous that it could become a target
for attacks by Islamic militants after a report in an Arab newspaper that
Osama bin Laden´s al Qaeda militant network had threatened to attack
Tokyo if Japanese troops set foot in Iraq.
-
- Japan approved the dispatch of its main army contingent
to help rebuild Iraq in late January, and now has about 100 troops establishing
a base in Samawa, southern Iraq.
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- It plans to send up to 600 ground troops in a total deployment
in Iraq of around 1,000, including air force and navy personnel.
-
- Critics have argued that the deployment violates Japan´s
pacifist constitution. But an opinion poll in business daily Nihon Keizai
Monday said support for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had risen this
year, suggesting growing public acceptance of his decision to send troops
to help rebuild Iraq.
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- The National Police Agency said in December that Japan´s
close ties with the United States and the many U.S. facilities in the country
could also make it a target for attacks by Islamic militants.
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- Japanese leftists have in the past used steel pipes as
homemade launchers to fire projectiles at targets such as police or government
facilities and U.S. military bases.
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