NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is holding a press conference on 15 February 2021, ahead of meetings of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
NATO
WASHINGTON – NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced Thursday that the 30-member alliance will expand its security training mission in Iraq to prevent the war-torn country from becoming a refuge safe for international terrorists.
“The size of our mission will increase from 500 people to about 4,000 and training activities will now include more Iraqi security institutions and areas beyond Baghdad,” Stoltenberg told reporters at the end of a two-day virtual meeting of NATO defense ministers.
“Our presence is based on conditions and the increase in the number of troops will be incremental,” he said, adding that the Iraqi government requested an expanded mission.
Earlier in the week, a senior defense official told reporters ahead of the NATO meeting that the Pentagon was “enthusiastic and celebrating NATO’s biggest focus on Iraq.” The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would not reveal whether the U.S. military was willing to contribute more troops to the training mission in Iraq.
The United States has 2,500 troops in Iraq.
“ISIS is still operating in Iraq and we need to make sure they can’t come back,” Stoltenberg said Thursday, adding that the alliance has experienced a slight rebound in attacks.
The decision to expand NATO’s footprint in Iraq comes after deadly rocket attacks in the city of Irbil.
A worker cleans broken glass on February 16, 2021 outside a damaged shop after a rocket attack the night before in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region of northern Iraq.
Safin Hamed | AFP | Getty Images
Monday’s attack claimed the life of a civilian contractor and injured nine more people, including a member of the U.S. service, according to U.S. Army Colonel Wayne Marotto, a spokesman for the fighting coalition. the IS.
A Shiite group called Awliya Al Dam claimed responsibility for the attack and is believed to be a front for a group of militias with Iranian support. The White House, the Pentagon and the State Department have not publicly confirmed who is behind the attack.
The State Department on Wednesday pledged to impose consequences on those responsible, but gave few details.
“We are not going to preview a response, but it is fair to say that there will be consequences for any group responsible for this attack,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters during a press conference.
“Any response we will take will be in full coordination with the Iraqi government and also with our coalition partners,” he added.
A day after the attack, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House was “outraged” by the violence in Iraq.
Psaki also said the Biden administration was working with partners in the region to conduct an investigation into the attack.