WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is considering providing training to elite Iraqi forces in Jordan as US officials seek ways to help the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki repel an Al Qaeda campaign near its western border.
Earlier this week, officials said the US was in discussion with Iraq about training its elite forces in a third country, which would allow Washington to provide a modest measure of new support against militants in the absence of a deal allowing US soldiers to operate within Iraq.
“There is discussion about this, and Jordan is included in the discussion,” a US defence official said. He said a privately run special operations training centre near Amman was one of the sites being considered.
Jordan, grappling with the impact of the conflict in neighbouring Syria, is one of the US’ closest allies in the Middle East.
It was not clear who would provide new training, but it might include US special forces or contractors.
US officials have grown worried about Iraq as Al Qaeda has staged a comeback in western Anbar province, where the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an Al Qaeda affiliate, is seeking to set up a Sunni religious state straddling Iraq and Syria.
Two years after the Obama administration pulled US troops from Iraq, the US response to sectarian tensions and violence in Iraq has been limited by reluctance to further empower Maliki, a Shia at odds with minority Sunnis, and by a widespread desire to ensure US soldiers are not involved in another Middle East war.
The US is sending Hellfire missiles, surveillance aircraft and other gear Maliki has requested.
But at a time when many US lawmakers see him as an aspiring authoritarian with ties with Iran, the Obama administration has not yet provided Iraq with attack helicopters Maliki has urged.
Some in the US Senate say Washington should not move ahead with plans to sell and lease Apache helicopters to Iraq without assurances about how the attack aircraft will be used.
Because US soldiers cannot conduct activities in Iraq without a Status of Forces Agreement, providing new support to Iraqi forces outside Iraq is one way the Obama administration can try to help Iraq beat back what appears to be a growing militant threat.
The troop agreement the US negotiated with Maliki’s government in 2008 expired at the end of 2011 as US forces withdrew.
Reuters
