American airman quizzed over rape claim
Japanese police were to continue questioning an American Air Force sergeant who is under suspicion in the alleged rape of a woman in Okinawa.
They will question the serviceman and witnesses to the alleged attack on the Japanese woman not far from several US military bases, said a police spokesman on condition of anonymity.
He declined further comment.
Master Sgt Michael Farris, a spokesman at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, also said the investigation would continue, but declined to provide details.
The victim of the alleged attack, who is in her 20s, told authorities she was surrounded by several foreign men and that one of them raped her.
Pentagon spokesman Lt Cmdr Jeff Davis said an Air Force technical sergeant at the Kadena Air Base was suspected of the rape, adding that the man and the woman had been drinking together before the incident. Kadena is the largest US defence facility in Asia.
The suspect, who was questioned by Okinawan police yesterday, has not been charged with a crime.
As many as seven other American service personnel from the Air Force and Marines were also questioned, most as possible witnesses, Davis said.
The incident occurred just a day before Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and US President George W. Bush were to hold talks at Camp David in which the reduction of the US military presence on Okinawa was expected to be a main topic of discussion.
Residents of Okinawa, 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo, have been outraged by a recent series of crimes by American servicemen many involving sexual assault.
Nearly two-thirds of the 47,000 US military personnel in Japan are stationed on the island.
