BRUSSELS: NATO defence ministers agreed on Thursday a bigger ´train-and-advise´ mission in Iraq after a US call for the alliance to help stabilise the country after three years of war against Islamic State. Part of a broader international effort to help rebuild Iraq as combat operations wind down, the NATO military alliance will train Iraqi soldiers as they clear unexploded remnants of war left behind by ISIS, but will not provide troops for combat. ?We will go to a consistent mission in Iraq,? US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told a news conference, after formally requesting NATO involvement last month in a letter to allies. Mattis said the NATO mission would train Iraqis to ?protect their people against an uprising of another type of terrorism organisation,? as the United States seeks to avoid a repeat of its 2011 withdrawal from Iraq and the subsequent rise of ISIS. The alliance must now set the scope of the mission with the aim of launching it in July at a NATO summit set to be attended by US President Donald Trump.
02-16-2018, 12:02 PM
At US urging, NATO agrees training mission in Iraq
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