New Zealand sets deadline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq

New Zealand sets deadline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq



2019/06/10 01:03:00
 
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardenne said on Monday that her country would withdraw its troops from Iraq by June next year, concluding a task that helped train the Iraqi army to counter the organization of the Islamic state.

New Zealand, which has 95 soldiers in Iraq, has deployed troops there in 2015 as part of a joint training mission with Australia to support a US-led multinational operation against the Islamic state.

"Over the next 12 months, New Zealand will cut and then end this commitment," Ardenne told a news conference to announce the decision.

The number of troops will be reduced to 75 soldiers at most from July to 45 in January, before the mission ends in June 2020, she said.

The forces provide basic weapons skills training as well as medical and logistical support for Iraqi security forces inside Taji camp north of Baghdad.

The New Zealand government said in a statement that the number of members of the Iraqi security forces who have been trained in this camp since 2015 exceeded 44 thousand.

New Zealand troops were to be deployed in Iraq until the end of May 2017, but successive governments have decided to extend their mission. Ardenne last year extended troop deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan until June.

New Zealand will reduce the number of its personnel on a NATO-led mission in Afghanistan from 13 to 11, but troops will remain there until December 2020 to support the training of Afghan army officers, Ardenne said.

LINK