NATO will provide training to Iraqi soldiers

NATO will provide training to the Iraqi soldiers during the coming period in the framework of the efforts aiming to escalate efforts aiming to fight against ISIS, as the Iraqi forces started its air raids against the extremist organization’s strong holds in the Iraqi city Mousl’s right bank to prepare for the military operation to liberate it.

According to Wall Street Journal, the effort to train Iraqi soldiers in how to better counter the threat of improvised explosive devices inside Iraq will be small at first, but NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said it is an effort that could expand.

“The training inside Iraq is modest, but it is scalable, and I believe NATO both can and should do more,” Mr. Stoltenberg said in an interview. “This is a start, and then we will assess, work with allies and look at what more we can do.”

Still, while stepping up NATO’s efforts to counter terrorism is a priority for the Trump administration, it is being treated more skeptically in other parts of the alliance. Some countries, including France and Germany, have been skeptical of having NATO take too large or public a role in the coalition to fight Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

While all members of the alliance have supported the fight against Islamic State in some form, having NATO itself take a larger role has been controversial. The Iraqi training program was first requested by Iraq’s government in May 2016 and was approved at last year’s NATO summit in Warsaw but has taken time to get going.

Some diplomats have argued that the “NATO brand” would alienate some in the Middle East. Others have said that bringing in NATO would make decision making in the fight too cumbersome. The U.S. has pressed NATO to get more involved, requesting its early-warning planes be used to assist in the air war over Syria.

And U.S. pressure to do more is set to increase. President Donald Trump has repeatedly called on NATO to get involved in counterterrorism efforts, and senior allied officers think stepping up the training efforts is a way to meet that demand.

Mr. Stoltenberg also often speaks of the importance of training and other so-called capacity-building efforts. He has cajoled allies to get the Iraqi effort going and expand other alliance efforts to train local forces. There are 10 NATO officers permanently in Iraq, with other small teams rotating in and out for specific training programs.

The separate NATO effort in Jordan to train Iraqi forces there will continue. About 350 Iraqi officers have been trained in Jordan. The trainers in Iraq will initially train 30 Iraqi troops, although officials have said the plan is that they will take their training to their units, spreading the knowledge.