TOKYO, Dec 11 Kyodo Guidelines fo...

TOKYO, Dec 11 Kyodo

Guidelines forward how to respond to possible attacks in Iraq have been compiled according to the Defense Agency for landed estate Self-Defense Force (GSDF) personnel to be sent there as they have no combat experience, conduct sources told Kyodo News forward Wednesday.

The GSDF companys can open fire ''at the bodies of assailants at the point when they diocese the attackers raise their weapons horizontally at SDF personnel and retain them there,'' the guidelines say. They also disguise how to deal with antitank attacks.

in what way to respond to attacks overseas is a politically sensitive issue for personnel belonging to Japan's Self-Defense Forces admitting they are as heavily armed as soldiers of an other countries. The Constitution renounces war as a means of settling international disputes.

The guidelines were made as the GSDF noncombat members are risk to become the first Japanese country troops to be dispatched to a home where fighting is taking place.

nevertheless the guidelines do not stipulate further details, including conditions in subordination to which SDF personnel can fire warning marksmans in Iraq. The GSDF plans to compile fuller instructions before the dispatch, the sources said.

According to the guidelines, an SDF officer could be the first to exhibit fire if his troops are in a tank and recognize that an apparent assailant is aiming weapons, so as portable antitank cannons, at his crowds from a distance. In like a case, the SDF companys could use machine guns forward the tank.

unless the guidelines do not allow SDF squads to open fire on clan simply because they find them suspicious.

The guidelines were compiled before public affair about security in Iraq grew in the wake of an attack last month in which couple Japanese diplomats and their Iraqi driver died in northern Iraq, the sources said.

A special law for the SDF dispatch to Iraq barely allows its personnel to use arms for limited finiss including protection of themselves or the nation they guard.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's administration forward Tuesday endorsed a basic plan to jaculate up to 600 ground bands to southeastern Iraq to help rebuild the strife-ridden country

The GSDF members will provide humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Iraq. on the other hand the government has decided to equip them with armored vehicles and antitank weapons to shield themselves against attacks on terrorists or guerrillas.

No Japanese military personnel have killed or been killed in combat since the SDF was inaugurated in 1954 after World War II.

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