Japanese forces head to Baghdad; Missile bombardment at Baghdad's airport, US soldier killed
One American soldier was killed on Tuesday and another wounded in a bomb explosion implanted on a roadside to the south of Baghdad.
The American army said that unidentified persons fired two missiles early morning yesterday at the international airport in Baghdad, which is used by the American forces as a headquarters, but no casualties were reported.
One American military spokesman who was not identified explained that the missiles were fired from a population crowded area in the city. He said that the leadership sent military forces to comb the site from where the two missiles were fired and gave no further details.
In central Iraq, an official in the police of Kerbala city said yesterday that three Iraqi police men were killed on Monday evening in an attack near the city. Rahman Mishawi said that unidentified persons in a red BMW car opened fire at a Pickup truck for the police in an area situated 30 Km to the north of the city.
He stressed that the three men were killed and fire erupted in their car because bullets hit the fuel reservoir.
The American forces detained two Iraqi in Tikrit after finding an explosive on the road that was about to be trodden by an American military vehicle.
Meantime, a Japanese government plane of Boeing 747 type left Shetouz air base in the Japanese Hokaydo island carrying the first unit of the land forces out of 600 soldiers who will be deployed in shifts in al-Samawa, to the south of Iraq, and where their deployment will be completed before the end of next March.
This unit includes 90 members of engineering and military doctors unit and will stay for several days in Kuwait for adaptation before heading for al-Samawa, to the southern east of Iraq, where since January 19 some 40 persons of the reconnaissance force have positioned with the mission for preparing for these forces.
Meantime, a spokesman for the ministry of defense in Honduras, south America, said that a first shift including 180 soldiers out of 370 including 11 women headed for Iraq on board of a plane rented by the coalition forces, and will replace a first contingent deployed in this country since August 2003.This shift will join an international contingent including soldiers from Honduras, Nicaragua, Salvador, the Dominique Republic and Spain under the chairmanship of the USA.