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Bomb threats sent to 11 Tokyo hospitals-Kyodo

Posted on: Monday, 5 September 2005, 00:57 CDT

TOKYO (Reuters) - Eleven hospitals in Japan's capital of Tokyo have received bomb threats, Kyodo news agency said on Monday amid heightened security ahead of a weekend general election.

The University of Tokyo Hospital and 10 other university hospitals in Tokyo received threatening letters earlier this month saying they would be bombed within 45 days, Kyodo said, quoting police.

No demands were made in the letters, Kyodo said, adding that no suspicious objects have been found at the hospitals and that the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had launched an investigation.

Asked about the Kyodo report, a Tokyo police spokesman declined to comment, saying he had no information about the case.

Japan has been tightening security ahead of a general election on September 11 and in the wake of a reported warning that al-Qaeda might be preparing to attack an Asian city.

Concerns about an attack in Japan rose late in August after France's top terrorist investigator, Jean-Louis Bruguiere, was quoted by the Financial Times as saying al-Qaeda may be preparing an attack on an Asian financial center such as Tokyo, Sydney or Singapore.

Japan's National Police Agency has said up to 13,600 police would be deployed throughout Japan in the run-up to next Sunday's election, with the emphasis on major cities such as Tokyo and the western city of Osaka. Japan has been on guard against possible attacks on its soil especially after December 2003, when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's cabinet approved a plan to dispatch troops on a non-combat mission to help rebuild Iraq.

Ahead of that decision, al Qaeda had reportedly threatened to "strike at the heart of Tokyo" if Japan sent troops to Iraq.

An audio tape message attributed to senior al Qaeda member Ayman al-Zawahri that was aired on Al Jazeera television in October 2004 also mentioned Japan. The tape urged Muslims to organize resistance against "crusader America" and its allies throughout the world.

Source: REUTERS

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