WASHINGTON — NATO has delivered 160 sets of counter-IED equipment to Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior on Sunday, the alliance announced in a news release.
The equipment, financed by NATO’s Defence Capacity Building Trust Fund, will be used by Iraq’s security forces to curb terror efforts to harm both military personnel and civilians with improvised explosive devices.
"One of our best tools in the fight against terrorism is training local forces," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers on Friday. "[T]his equipment will help save lives."
In July 2015, at Iraq’s request, NATO agreed to provide defense capacity-building support in countering IEDs; explosive ordnance disposal and demining; security sector reform; and military medicine and civil military planning among other issues.
NATO trained more than 350 Iraqi security officers in Jordan in 2016. At the Warsaw Summit in July, NATO allies agreed to expand this training into Iraq. NATO advisers have been leading the training in Iraq since January.
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