Finland plans to send noncombat troops to Iraq

Finnish Minister of Defense Carl Haglund confirmed on Monday that Finland will make a decision soon on sending noncombat troops to Iraq, reported Finnish national broadcaster YLE.

Haglund told YLE that the decision will be made by the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy by the end of January.

Finland will send 20 to 30 military trainers to Erbil in the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, for training Kurdish fighters to combat Islamic State militants.

The Finnish troops will be deployed in Iraq during March and April this year, said Haglund.

He believed that the Islamic State's atrocities are so shocking that foreign powers have a duty to react.

"It is a global moral duty to try to prevent this terrible development. Thus, I see that it is logical that Finland, too, seeks to be involved in," Haglund was quote as saying.

Haglund refused to tell more details, as the final decision has not been made yet.

Last Sunday, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom revealed that Sweden is planning to support the anti-Islamic State efforts in Iraq by dispatching troops to provide training support.

Sending military trainers to Iraq is a part of global operations joined by over 60 countries in providing backup to combat the Islamic State, according to Wallstrom.

Haglund made the confirmation after a series of terrorist attacks in Paris left 17 people dead.

Joining 40 world leaders in a solidarity march to honor the victims on Sunday, Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb warned that the world is heading toward a new era of terrorism, which has been seen particularly in the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Endit