Twenty Iraqi security officials begin training by NATO in Norway

WAR.WIRE

Twenty Iraqi security officials begin training by NATO in Norway
BRUSSELS (AFP) Nov 01, 2004
Twenty Iraqi security officers began receiving training Monday at a NATO center in Stavanger, Norway, under an assistance program set up in June, the Atlantic Alliance announced in Brussels.

The week-long course at the newly created Joint Warfare Center for "intermediate and high-ranking" officers focuses on security headquarters operations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said in a statement.

The course is a pilot project and "may be used for other training activities" either in Stavanger or in Iraq, "the ultimate goal being to help this country create its own training structures," the statement said.

The 26-member alliance decided at its June summit in Istanbul to help Iraq reconstitute its security forces, and has since begun to put together this assistance, not without internal discord.

Fewer than 70 NATO personnel are in Baghdad where they have begun to train Iraqi chief of staff officials. NATO also plans to assist in the creation of a military academy on the outskirts of the Iraqi capital.

US General James Jones, supreme commander of NATO forces, said last week that NATO hoped to train around 1,000 high-ranking Iraqi officers each year.

Jones said 16 or 17 of the 26 member states have voiced willingness to contribute to the program inside Iraq, while others, in particular France and Germany, have said they would help outside the country.

In the statement Monday, NATO said that another training session for Iraqi security forces will take place at the end of the month at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany.