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NATO to begin training Iraqi officers inside Iraq in January

NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels
NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels
BRUSSELS, Oct 27 (KUNA) - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced here Thursday that the Alliance has trained hundreds of Iraqi officers inside Jordan and will now start training them inside Iraq. "And last night, we confirmed that training and capacity-building will start inside Iraq in January," he told a press conference after a 2-day meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels.
"This is an important contribution to the fight against ISIL. Together with our AWACS surveillance aircraft, now flying in support of the Counter-ISIL Coalition," he said.
Stoltenberg said he is "very concerned " about the situation in Syria. "It is a tragic situation," he said and called on Russia and the Assad regime "to stop all their indiscriminate bombings." The NATO chief lauded the Alliance's anti-terrorism cooperation with Jordan and Tunisia describing the two countries as "islands of stability in a region with a lot of instability." "Helping Tunisia for instance with developing their special operational forces and intelligence is an important contribution to make sure that Tunsia remains stable and is able to fight terrorism themselves," he stated. Stoltenberg added that NATO defence ministers held a meeting with EU High Representative Federica Mogherini today, where they addressed NATO-EU cooperation.
"NATO-EU cooperation is now closer than it has ever been before," he said. (end) nk.msa