NATO training Iraqi forces in demining

BRUSSELS, Dec 21 (KUNA) -- In November and December, a NATO mobile training team led by Slovakia conducted a training course in manual demining for Iraqi Security Forces. This was held inside Iraq under the framework of the NATO Defence and Security Capacity Building Initiative for Iraq, the Alliance said in a press release Thursday.
Twenty-one students from the Iraqi Ministry of Defence attended the course. Upon completion seventeen of them were certified as instructors; four were awarded with certificates of basic demining.
Following the liberation of Iraq from IS, more clearance of explosives is required. Civilians are often the victims, as IS are reported to have planted bombs and other explosive devices in heavily populated areas, as well as in schools and parks, it said.
Other NATO training courses conducted in Iraq included countering improvised explosive devices, maintenance of Soviet-era armoured vehicles, military medicine, civil-military cooperation, reform of security institutions, and civil emergency planning to deal with natural emergencies, it noted. (end) nk.ibi