You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Iraq
Dutch soldiers will remain Iraq's Kurdistan until May
2022-11-01
[Shafaq News] Dutch military personnel will continue to secure Erbil international airport until May next year, when other allies will take over that task, the Netherlands Times said on Sunday.

From 2024, the Netherlands may make a multi-year contribution to the NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
mission, ministers Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs), Kajsa Ollongren (Defence) and Liesje Schreinemacher (Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation) informed the Tweede Kamer in a letter.

About 120 military personnel are currently involved in airport security. They are part of the international coalition against the terrorist group Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(IS). Dutch military personnel will remain active in Iraq for this mission and other deployment at least until the end of next year.

For the NATO mission, Dutch military personnel would contribute to security and armored transport capacity in the capital Baghdad and the surrounding area. The Cabinet is currently investigating the desirability and possibility of this contribution, the Cabinet wrote to the Tweede Kamer.

According to the Cabinet, it remains of strategic importance for the Netherlands to contribute to a safer and more stable Iraq, "at the heart of a very unstable region, on the edge of Europe." According to the ministers, the country faces many problems, including insecurity, corruption and a lack of economic prospects. According to them, leaving Iraq completely would not be "wise" and would be at the expense of "previous results" in the fight against IS.

The Cabinet said "the center of gravity of international efforts in Iraq is shifting. Previously, it focused mainly on fighting IS, which has also suffered heavy losses as a result. Now the military deployment is more focused on preventing a renewed escalation and on strengthening the security sector in the country."
Posted by:trailing wife

00:00