Japanese leftist group claims responsibility for blast near US base
Posted: 17 February 2007 1721 hrs

	Photos  of

TOKYO : A Japanese extreme left-wing group has claimed responsibility for a small explosion near a US army base outside Tokyo ahead of US Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Japan.

The group, calling itself the Revolutionary Army, said in a statement to media organisations here that the blast was an "angry blow of an iron hammer" at Washington's plan to increase US troops in Iraq.

"It is an preemptive attack to stop Vice President Cheney's visit to Japan," the statement added, attacking moves to strengthen the US-Japan military alliance.

Cheney is scheduled to arrive here next Tuesday on a three-day visit during which he is expected to tour the US naval base in nearby Yokosuka.

The Metropolitan Police Department said Saturday they thought the group was a faction of a militant left-wing group called Kakurokyo (The Revolutionary Workers' Council), known for a series of attacks using crude home-made incendiary devices in protest at the US military presence in Iraq.

The explosion occurred near Camp Zama, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Tokyo on Monday, injuring no one and causing no damage.

Police later found two steel cylinders at a nearby park and what was believed to be a fragment of a projectile 430 metres (470 yards) away.

US television network ABC News had reported that the explosion could have been the first attempt by an al-Qaida terrorist cell to launch an attack in Japan.

ABC, quoting intelligence sources in Japan and Pakistan, said that Al-Qaeda had established a presence in Japan.

Under the US military realignment plan, which the protesters criticised, the US Army's command and control structure at Camp Zama will be reinforced.

More than 40,000 US troops are stationed across Japan, a key military ally of Washington.

Japan was a strong supporter of the 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and took the landmark step of sending troops to Iraq. Japan's last troops in Iraq returned home in July.

US forces are stationed in Japan under a security alliance forged after World War II, where the Japanese government was forced to renounce its right to a military. - AFP/fz