...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
jihadist group, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said on Wednesday.
The United Kingdom, which is supporting U.S.-led air strikes aimed at driving IS jihadists out of significant parts of Iraq, is already training Kurdish forces in the country.
"We will be stepping up our training effort. We're talking to our coalition partners about how the... additional training is going to be provided, in training centres in and around Baghdad," Fallon told journalists in the Iraqi capital.
The training would be for battalions able to leave the front lines, he said, without specifying if it would involve Iraqi soldiers, police or both.
The exact number of trainers that would be sent had not yet been decided.
"One particular area of expertise we have is in counter-IED (improvised bombs). We've learnt from Afghanistan in dealing with roadside kabooms and boom-mobiles and we have some specialist knowledge to contribute," said Fallon.
Britannia already has a "small number of people" in Baghdad, and "will be looking now to see how we can strengthen that, the liaison work that we're doing in the ministries and the security agencies here," he said.
The Ministry of Defense said last month that a "small, specialist team" of soldiers was providing training to Kurdish forces in the country's autonomous north on the use of heavy machineguns.
And it said in a statement on Wednesday that Britannia would be increasing the training on offer to the Kurds "to include infantry skills such as sharp-shooting and first aid, alongside the provision of further equipment".
Fallon met with Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi, Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani and other senior Iraqi and Kurdish officials during the trip, on which he visited both Baghdad and the northern city of Arbil, the ministry said.
Prime Minister
David Cameron... has stated that he is
certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite,which means he's not. Since he is
not deeply ideologicalhe lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as
certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger,but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ...
has ruled out sending combat troops back into Iraq, wary of committing to a new conflict six months from a general election.
Britannia was one of the main members of the U.S.-led "coalition of the willing" that invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein.
The last British forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011.
Britannia has not participated in air strikes by the coalition against IS in Syria, where the jihadist group has also seized significant territory.