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Germany partners with Iraq, United
Arab Emirates for training
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An agreement
between Iraq, Germany and the United Arab Emirates to jointly train
Iraqi military forces is clearing the way for the preparation and
equipping of an Iraqi engineering unit.
The agreement, signed during German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's
March 4-5 visit to the UAE, has Germany supplying instructors and
equipment such as graders, bulldozers, 20-ton cranes and cement
mixers to the unit, which will consist of 250 Iraqi trainees. The
UAE will cover the expenses for the trainers, trainees and
interpreters, according to German Embassy officials.
Bruska Noori Shaways, Secretary General of Iraq's Ministry of
Defense, and Lt. Gen. Hamad Mohammed Thani Al Rumaithy, chief of
staff of the UAE Armed Forces, represented their respective
countries in the agreement.
Germany and the UAE have previously cooperated in the training of
Iraqi troops. In November 2004, 122 Iraqi personnel were trained to
operate, repair and maintain 100 Daimler-Mercedes five-ton trucks
that Germany sold to the UAE. The UAE paid to transport the trucks
to Iraq, along with the expenses of the German trainers, translators
and Iraqi trainees.
Germany has also been involved in helping to train Iraqi civil
police, providing about a dozen high-level trainers last year to
teach 431 Iraqi police officers the fundamentals of crime scene
investigation.
More recently, 30 Iraqi police officers are going through a
four-week personal protection training program led by eight German
instructors. That training is designed for Iraqi police officers who
will be protecting Iraqi politicians.
The same group of Iraqi police officers will continue with a course
on hostage rescue techniques, with training provided by UAE police.
Germany will provide radios, some weapons, ammunition and other
equipment for the training, which will be conducted at a UAE
facility.
Germany hopes to fulfill an Iraqi request in the future to provide
training in explosive ordnance detachment tactics, officials said.
For more information please visit
www.mnstci.iraq.centcom.mil
Release #050316e |
