Australia to send troops to Iraq, Afghanistan
Australia has announced new military missions to Afghanistan and Iraq at a defence meeting overshadowed by a row between Donald Trump and his Nato allies.
It has volunteered to join a Natoled mission in Iraq to improve the country’s military academies, aimed at preventing the return of Isis or a resurgence of terrorism.
And 20 Australian defence personnel are heading to Afghanistan to help the country set up a Blackhawk helicopter fleet.
The Iraq mission, launched at the Nato leaders summit in Brussels this week, will ‘‘train the trainers’’ who teach Iraqi soldiers how to counter suicide bombers and detect, defuse and dispose of the improvised explosives used by terrorists.
It will also cover military medicine, armoured vehicle maintenance and civil-military planning, which is the co-ordination of military and civilian operations in areas such as post-war reconstruction, emergency planning and the protection of critical infrastructure.
Nato put together the mission, which will be led by Canada and involve several hundred Nato trainers, after a request from the Iraqi government for more help in
‘‘The Blackhawks are a critical battlefield enabler that will provide the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces with increased air mobility and response capabilities for ground forces.’’
Australia will also continue to fund Afghanistan’s current fleet of Mi-17 helicopters as it transitions to the Blackhawk through the Afghan National Army Trust Fund, to which we have contributed US$520 million ($704 million) since 2010.
The launch of the Iraq mission was one of the few positives to come from a heated day at the summit which Stoltenberg, at one point, compared to the Suez Crisis. – Fairfax