A last batch of 110 Japanese soldiers arrived in Kuwait on Sunday as part of a rotation to replace Tokyo's ground troops involved in a humanitarian mission in southern Iraq, a military spokesman said.At the same time, a group of 230 soldiers left Iraq via Kuwait for Japan as part of the rotation, Lieutenant Colonel Shigeru Yamasaki, head of the Task Planning and Liaison Unit, told AFP.
A last contingent of the 500-strong Japanese ground troops who were deployed three months ago to the Shiite city of Samawa, some 270 kilometers (170 miles) south of Baghdad, will leave by the end of May, Yamasaki said.
The new troops, who will go to Iraq within a few days after shooting and driving exercises in Kuwait, will put the number of Japanese troops in the war-torn country at just under 500, Yamasaki said.
An 80-strong Japanese security contingent has not been affected by the rotation and was to remain in the city for several more weeks.
The deployment was Japan's first military mission in a combat zone since World War II.
A rotation of about 200 Japanese Air Force members who have been airlifting humanitarian aid and reconstruction equipment from Kuwait to Iraq in three C-130 transporters since January, was completed last month.
Tokyo has pledged five billion dollars between 2004 and 2007 to help rebuild Iraq.
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