GSDF Iraq logs describe tense situation in vivid detail

April 17, 2018

Tokyo- Daily activity logs for the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's 2004-2006 mission in Iraq, disclosed on Monday, describe the tense local situation in vivid detail, referring, for example, to an explosion of an improvised explosive device and an exchange of gunfire between multinational forces and insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades.

The Japanese government had pledged to dispatch the GSDF troops only to noncombat areas so that they would not get involved in the use of force by troops from other countries.

Given the tension-filled descriptions in the daily logs released by the Defense Ministry, the consistency between the government policy and the real situation in the area where the GSDF troops were dispatched to help Iraq's postwar reconstruction is called into question, informed sources said.

The log for Aug. 24, 2005, says, "Although combat between the multinational forces and local armed groups have ceased on a formal basis, they may continue under secret instructions," suggesting that the GSDF troops and the multinational forces were communicating closely at the time.

A log written on one day in April 2006 quotes a GSDF member dispatched to an airfield in Basra, southern Iraq, where the multinational forces were under heavy attacks as saying, "I was awakened by the sounds of landing shells and an alarm, so I have to move forward with little sleep again."

The member also said, "I've been horrified every time updated information (on attacks) comes in."

As militias supporting influential anti-U.S. Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr were rebelling against foreign troops in Samawah, southern Iraq, where the GSDF troops' camp was located, the logs include a number of descriptions about Sadr-linked insurgents.

One daily log refers to "the possibility that Sadr-linked extremist militias will attack troops operating outside our camp using IEDs, RPGs and firearms," indicating that the GSDF unit was operating on high alert.

The log on Jan. 22, 2006, says combat intensified after militias opened fire in protest against British military vehicles starting patrolling in Samawah, noting that "chances cannot be ruled out" that the fighting would escalate.

The same log includes detailed descriptions about warfare between the multinational forces and local armed groups.

After an IED exploded near a security checkpoint, British and Australian troops jointly patrolled the area with the Iraqi police, the report says. "They got into a fight with insurgents armed with firearms and RPGs that left three dead and five injured," it also says.

Commenting on the Jan. 22 log containing the descriptions about the intensified combat, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told a press conference on Tuesday, "The region where the SDF operated met the criteria for being a noncombat area."

He also said, "There is no change in my understanding that the GSDF troops operated based on the special Japanese law on supporting the postwar reconstruction of Iraq."

Some of other logs show that the GSDF troops had collected information also at Muslim mosques to analyze Iraqi citizens' feelings toward them and the multinational forces. They include profiles of Islamic clerics. Jiji Press