NATO suspends training missions in Iraq after Soleimani killing

By : AFP

Date: 4 January 2020 1:16pm WAT

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 6, 2019 US soldiers look out over hillsides during a visit of the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan General at the Afghan National Army (ANA) checkpoint in Nerkh district of Wardak province. An American service member was killed in action in Afghanistan on December 23, 2019, US officials said. US Forces-Afghanistan did not immediately release any additional information, pending notification of the victim's next of kin. THOMAS WATKINS / AFP

NATO has suspended its training missions in Iraq, a spokesman for the alliance said Saturday, following the US killing of Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani.

The NATO mission in Iraq, which consists of several hundred personnel, trains the country’s security forces at the request of the Baghdad government to prevent the return of the Islamic State jihadist group.

“NATO’s mission is continuing, but training activities are currently suspended,” said the spokesman, Dylan White.

He also confirmed that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had spoken by telephone with US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper “following recent developments.”

A US defence official told AFP earlier Saturday that US-led forces helping Iraqi troops fight jihadists have scaled back operations.

Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force foreign operations arm, was killed in a US drone attack in Baghdad on Friday.

The strike also killed the deputy head of Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi, a network of mostly Shiite factions close to Iran and incorporated into the Baghdad government’s security forces.

The attack shocked the Islamic republic and sparked fears of a new war in the Middle East.