Britain Prepares to Send Troops Back to Iraq
Guardian (UK) | Dec 15, 2014 | by Ewen MacAskill
The national security council is to meet shortly to decide how many British troops to send back to Iraq to help combat the threat from Islamic State (ISIS). An estimated 100 to 200 could be sent, mainly in a training role, but some would be combat troops protecting the trainers.
The council, made up of cabinet ministers and heads of intelligence and the military, will also discuss where the troops will be based.
The Iraqi army, though trained by the U.S., British and other allied forces before the final U.S. withdrawal in 2011, collapsed this year in the face of ISIS forces which took over much of north and central Iraq.
The British return to Iraq in a training role was announced in parliament last month but not the numbers or location.
There have been British troops in Iraq since September, based in Iraqi Kurdistan, mainly training the peshmerga militia force in the use of machine-guns. British special forces have also been in place to bolster the peshmerga, which at one point seemed vulnerable to Isis attacks.
The U.S. said in November it was to send 1,500 trainers to Iraq, teaching at four centres, one in Kurdistan and three others around Baghdad. The U.K. could be based at one or all of them. There are fears that providing British troops as trainers could lead to them returning to combat.
The defence secretary, Michael Fallon, told the Telegraph: "Our role now, apart from air strikes, is increasingly going to be on training. In particular it will mean dealing with car and truck bombs and roadside devices, as well as basic infantry skills."
Vernon Coaker, the shadow defence spokesman, said Labour supported the assistance to the Iraqi government but he asked for clarity about the operation.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/12/15/britain-prepares-to-send-troops-back-to-iraq.html?comp=700001075741&rank=2
