NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will hold a press conference on February 15, 2021, ahead of the 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 safe haven for international terrorists.
“The size of our mission will increase from 500 personnel to approximately 4,000 and the training activities will now include more Iraqi security institutions and areas outside 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 request for an expanded mission was requested by the Iraqi government.
Earlier this week, a senior defense official told reporters ahead of the NATO meeting that the Pentagon was “enthusiastic about and welcomed NATO’s increased focus on Iraq.” The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not want to disclose whether the US 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 active in Iraq and we have to make sure they cannot return,” Stoltenberg said on Thursday, adding that the alliance has seen a slight increase in attacks.
The decision to expand NATO’s footprint in Iraq comes on the heels of a deadly missile strike in the city of Irbil.
A worker cleans broken glass outside a damaged shop on Feb. 16, 2021 after a missile strike the night before in Arbil, the capital of the northern Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region.
Safin Hamed | AFP | Getty Images
Monday’s attack claimed the life of a civilian contractor and nine others, including a US military, were injured, said US Army Colonel Wayne Marotto, spokesman for the coalition fighting ISIS.
A Shia group called Awliya Al Dam has claimed responsibility for the attack and is believed to be a front for an Iranian-backed militia. The White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department have not publicly confirmed who is behind the attack.
The State Department promised Wednesday to impose consequences on those responsible, but gave few details.
“We are not going to anticipate a response, but it is fair to say there will be ramifications for every group responsible for this attack,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a news conference.
“Any response we take will be in full coordination with the government of Iraq 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 government was working with partners in the region to conduct an investigation into the attack.