TOKYO, 3 November 2004 — Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said yesterday that security was “unpredictable” in southern Iraq after a Japanese base there came under a second shell attack, on the heels of the killing of a Japanese hostage.

But Koizumi ruled out an immediate withdrawal of Japanese troops who were sent to Samawa in December on a yearlong reconstruction mission.

“I recognize that the security situation in Samawa is something unpredictable,” Koizumi told the lower house of Parliament. “Although it is relatively stable compared with Baghdad and other areas, we cannot rule out the possibility of a similar incident hereafter.”

The prime minister was reacting to the landing of a shell inside the military camp late Sunday, the day after the beheaded body of a Japanese hostage was discovered in Baghdad. Koizumi had refused demands from the kidnappers to pull Japanese troops out of Iraq within 48 hours. His government must decide whether to extend the Iraq mission past the expiry date of Dec. 14.

The shell penetrated a steel-made container warehouse after bouncing on the ground, causing the first damage to a Japanese facility in the camp, according to the Japanese Defense Agency.

No one was injured in the attack. On Oct. 23, a dud shell was found inside the camp, the first shell-landing there.

The mission in Samawa of some 550 troops is Japan’s first military deployment since World War II to a country where fighting is under way. It was allowed by a special law which limits troops to “noncombat” zones as Japan’s constitution bans the use of force in settling international disputes.

“When we make a comprehensive assessment based on information we have gained up to now and on the latest incident, we don’t presume that the areas around Samawa have become unable to meet the requirement of non-combat zones,” Koizumi said.

The defense minister, Yoshinori Ono, said he had yet to grasp the “background or motive” of the shellings. “We will take every possible measure to ensure the safety of the troops,” he told a news conference.

Meanwhile, the leader of an elite Japanese university club was sentenced yesterday to 14 years in prison for a series of gang-rapes that shocked the nation, court officials said.

The Tokyo District Court imposed the sentence on Shinichiro Wada, 30, a former student at Waseda University, on charges of raping three college women with other members of his “Super Free” social club.

Wada “ignored the humanity of the female victims and treated them as a tool to gain sexual satisfaction,” Presiding Judge Yujiro Nakatani told the court, according to Kyodo News. “It is a degrading and ugly crime. It is utterly vicious,” Nakatani said.

The judge said Wada led the club in making young women drink to excess at parties so the men could rape them.