A 20-member Air Self-Defense Force team left Narita airport Friday for Kuwait and Qatar, spearheading Japan's deployment of military units to undertake humanitarian activities in Iraq.
The team is part of an advance unit comprising some 40 ASDF members that will engage in information-gathering and coordination work with the U.S.-led coalition forces, laying the groundwork for the dispatch of the main ASDF contingent.
The Defense Agency hopes to dispatch about 280 airmen in mid-January to assist the U.S.-led coalition forces in transporting medical and food supplies to major airports in Iraq, including those at Baghdad, Basra, Balad and Mosul.