Iraq: Jordan training for soldiers tobegin soon

Reuters/AmmanJordan will begin training the first group of army troops from neighbouring Iraq in the next few weeks as part of the international effort to fight Islamic State, the Iraqi defence minister said yesterday. Speaking after meeting Jordanian King Abdullah, Khaled al Obeidi said Amman would also supply the Iraqi army with arms needed for its drawn-out fight against the radical Islamists who have seized wide swathes of the north and west of his country. Obeidi aims to rebuild the Iraqi army, which fell apart last summer in the face of Islamic State’s blitz across northern Iraq during which at least four Iraqi divisions crumbled. “I think in the next weeks the first batch of Iraqi army will get training in Jordan,” the defence minister said in Amman. “The arms warehouses of Jordan from weapons and ammunition will be open to the Iraqi army.” King Abdullah, a US ally whose country has joined the military campaign against IS militants in Syria, said on Sunday it was crucial to support both Iraqi and Syrian tribes threatened by Islamic State fighters. Jordan has in recent months beefed up its troops along the 180km border with Iraq, where IS fighters have control over stretches of the Baghdad-Jordan highway, a major Middle Eastern trade route. Obeidi was due to visit Jordanian army camps today. He said his talks with the army’s chief of staff would focus on ways of regaining control of the crucial overland trade and passenger artery. The fall of large parts of Anbar province bordering Jordan to IS poses a major security risk for the kingdom, officials say. Tribes currently fighting the militants in Anbar have long-standing ties with Jordan.