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Japan pulling troops from Iraq

Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Posted: 4:28 a.m. EDT (08:28 GMT)

TOKYO, Japan -- Japan will withdraw its ground troops from Iraq, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has announced.

Japan's 600 military troops based in the southern Muthana province are all non-combat personnel helping to rebuild the infrastructure.

Koizumi said on Tuesday the troops -- deployed in early 2004 -- had helped rebuild the infrastructure of the area where they were based, and he pledged further aid to Iraqi reconstruction, The Associated Press reports.

"Today we have decided to withdraw Ground Self-Defense Forces from the Samawah region in Iraq," Koizumi said in a nationally televised news conference. "The humanitarian dispatch ... has achieved its mission."

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