300 police added to security near GSDF base in Samawah

Asahi Weekly ^ | 2/7/04 | YASUNORI KAWAKAMI

[mylife]

300 police added to security near GSDF base in Samawah

By YASUNORI KAWAKAMI --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SAMAWAH, Iraq-Iraqi police will reinforce security in the Samawah area, meaning there will be about one guard for every member of the Self-Defense Forces operating there.

The security committee for the southeastern province of Muthanna decided to set up a checkpoint near the Ground SDF base camp and add 300 plainclothes officers to the current staff of 200.

Samawah is the capital of Muthanna.

During a meeting Tuesday, Col. Masahisa Sato, who heads the GSDF advance unit, and a Dutch military chief asked Muthanna Governor Mohammed Ali Hassan Abbas Alhasani for strengthened security measures around Samawah.

The 10-member provincial security committee comprises the governor and representatives of the provincial police, local political parties, tribal leaders, the Samawah city government and the Dutch military, which has been assigned by the Coalition Provisional Authority to ensure security in the Samawah region.

Sources said a committee meeting Wednesday was devoted to improving security for the scheduled arrival over the next month or so of the main GSDF contingent. About 90 GSDF engineers will soon arrive in Samawah to begin constructing the base camp. The remaining 440 or so members of the main contingent will arrive in three groups from late February.

The base camp will be constructed about 7 kilometers south of Samawah, along the road to Najaf. There is no checkpoint now near the site for the base camp.

The plainclothes officers will mainly be assigned intelligence gathering and patrol tasks, looking out especially for suspicious individuals and vehicles that enter Samawah and Muthanna. (02/07)