Nato said on Friday it had agreed to broaden its military training operation in Iraq to include courses for gendarme paramilitary functions. "We have agreed to a request by the Iraqi government for gendarmerie-type training," alliance defence ministers said in a joint statement released after a two-day meeting in Brussels.
A Nato spokesman said the new courses would mean a further 50 Nato trainers joining an existing 100 on the ground who have been providing Iraqi cadets with training modelled on Britain's Sandhurst military college at a base just outside Baghdad. The 26-country military alliance did not participate militarily in the 2003 US-led war in Iraq, which countries including France and Germany opposed.