BAGHDAD: Iraq said yesterday foreign military trainers who will aid its fight against jihadists are welcome but “late”, as a wave of car bombs killed dozens, highlighting enormous security challenges ahead.
US President Barack Obama unveiled plans the day before to send up to 1,500 additional US military personnel to Iraq, which would roughly double the number of American troops in the country.
The move marked a deepening US commitment in the open-ended war against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which spearheaded a June offensive that overran significant parts of Iraq and also holds territory in
neighbouring Syria.
A US-led coalition is carrying out a campaign of air strikes against IS in both Iraq and Syria, and countries including Britain, France and Germany have also deployed advisers and trainers to Iraq, which is struggling to repel the jihadists.
“This step is a little late, but we welcome it,” a statement from Prime Minister Haidar Al Abadi’s office said.
The government had requested that members of the international coalition battling IS help train and arm its forces, the statement said.
“The coalition agreed on that and four to five Iraqi training camps were selected, and building on that, they have now begun sending the trainers,” it said.
Multiple divisions collapsed in northern Iraq in the early days of the jihadist offensive, leaving major units that need to be reconstituted.
Experts say Iraqi security forces suffer from serious shortcomings in training and logistics, hampering their performance in the conflict.
Obama had resisted keeping troops in Iraq earlier in his term, vowing to end the American presence that began with the 2003 invasion and lasted until 2011.
Officials had weighed keeping several thousand troops in the country after 2011, but talks with the Iraqi government, then led by prime minister Nouri Al Maliki, broke down. AFP
