About 220 troops arrived July 17 at Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base from Samawah on C-130 transport planes, the Defense Agency said.

The group was the last of about 600 noncombat soldiers stationed in Samawah to distribute water and assist in other humanitarian tasks.

"Our ground forces have bravely completed their mission and have now safely withdrawn to Kuwait," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said July 17 after the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Defense chief Fukushiro Nukaga greeted the arriving soldiers in Kuwait.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 22, 2006
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