United Kingdom will send an additional 125 soldiers to train troops of Iraqi Armed Forces 10806152

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Defence & Security News - United Kingdom
 
United Kingdom will send an additional 125 soldiers to train troops of Iraqi Armed Forces.
The United Kingdom will send an additional 125 military trainers to Iraq to counter the rising threat from the Islamic State, Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday, June 7, 2015, at the G-7 summit. The British Prime Minister's office said the military personnel were being provided at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. They will chiefly help Iraqi forces learn how to deal with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.
     
The United Kingdom will send an additional 125 military trainers to Iraq to counter the rising threat from the Islamic State, Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday, June 7, 2015, at the G-7 summit. The British Prime Minister's office said the military personnel were being provided at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. They will chiefly help Iraqi forces learn how to deal with improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. An eight man team from the British Army, taught senior non-commissioned officers, through to the highest rank of Captain from the Iraq Army. By the end of there training, they will able to go back and teach in a military academy similar to Sandhurst.
     
The extra soldiers to train Iraq's military bring the total number of British troops operating there to around 200. The United States has about 3,000 troops in Iraq, and about 650 of them are military advisers and trainers.
 

In March, several dozen British troops were sent to the region to train Kurdish fighters who are battling the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.

On Sunday, Cameron described ISIL as the "biggest threat" being discussed at the two-day summit of the Group of Seven major industrial powers meeting in Germany.

Following the 2003 war in Iraq, Britain withdrew the last of its forces from the country in 2011.

The development comes ahead of separate meetings here Monday with Al-Abadi, Cameron and President Barack Obama.

Cameron and Obama spoke briefly Sunday on the sidelines of the summit, and Obama appeared to indicate that he and Cameron would later talk about what's working to help defeat the Islamic State fighters. Obama said terrorism-related issues in Libya and Nigeria would also be discussed.