NATO Training Forces Now Under Multinational Command
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2004 -- The Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq
and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced the structure of the Iraqi
security forces joint training, mentoring and equipping assistance effort Oct.
8 at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium.
The formal NATO commitment to the MNSTC-I mission, assisting the Iraqi
government to stand up a military and police security force in the country,
will fill gaps in the overall effort, officials said.
"What we are doing, and what the NATO mission has and will do, is help Iraqis -
- not do it for them," MNSTC-I Commander U.S. Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus
said in a Multinational Force Iraq news release. "The contribution that the
NATO training mission will make will be substantial."
The agreement designates Petraeus as the "dual-hatted" commander of MNSTC-I and
NATO forces in Iraq and their training mission. NATO's role will be
instructional, not placing alliance forces in offensive missions. "We have
already, for example, helped the Iraqis reestablish their military academy,"
Petraeus said.
"We were not able, however, to help them reestablish their staff college or
their war college or however they want to conceive them. The NATO mission will
take the lead in this endeavor."
Officials also said NATO will help Iraq establish a training, education and
doctrine command. Royal Netherlands Air Force Maj. Gen. Karel Hilderink will
serve as deputy commander of the NATO force. Ultimate force numbers for the
mission have yet to be established.
In Iraq, an $18.6 million MSTC-I construction project slated to bring 11 new
Iraqi armed forces medical clinics is now in full swing, according to a
release. Major operations on the project commenced in late August. The clinics
will be located at seven Iraqi forward operating and training bases.
The project, providing the newly formed Iraqi medical corps with new facilities
at various locations throughout the country, will complete the first clinic at
the Al Kasik base in northern Iraq in mid-December. The final facilities in the
country will come online at the end of January, MSTC-I officials said.
Other locations include clinics at the An Numaniyah, Kurkush, Taji, Kirkuk, Umm
Qasr, and Tallil bases. Most of the bases will have two clinics. The medical
corps is currently being recruited and trained and should eventually number
about 2,500-plus personnel.
(Compiled from Multinational Force Iraq news releases.)
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