NZ role in Iraq could increase

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee has completed a secret visit to Iraq, saying New Zealand’s intelligence-gathering role in the country could be expanded.

He also hinted that New Zealand will have a role in the reconstruction of Iraq.

Brownlee and Defence Force chief Lieutenant General Tim Keating visited Kiwi troops training Iraqi security forces at Camp Taji, near Baghdad, and received briefings from coalition forces taking on Islamic State (Isis).

Coalition commanders have suggested the end is near for Isis in the city of Mosul, leading to questions about how the country will be reconstructed.

Brownlee said there was ‘‘a reconstruction need here that clearly the coalition will need to address’’, according to NZME.

Brownlee suggested Kiwi intelligence work could be expanded to cover a wider area, while still being carried out at Taji.

‘‘What we are going to need to know is, as cities like Mosul fall, as pressure on some of the smaller towns that may harbour the last of the ISIL fighters grows, then they will run somewhere.

‘‘We need to be in the loop in an intelligence sense, knowing where they are going because we don’t want them coming our way. That may mean we have to look at some of the constraint that we have on the behind-the-wire activity that is mandated here at Taji.’’