Iraqi troop training mission "successful": New Zealand defense minister

A joint New Zealand-Australian mission to train Iraqi troops in the fight against Islamic State insurgents has been a success over its first nine months, Defense Minister Gerry Brownlee said Thursday.

However, opposition lawmakers challenged the government to prove this assertion, which was made on the basis of a cabinet review that had been extensively redacted on publication.

"So far this has been a successful mission," Brownlee said after the cabinet accepted the review of the first nine months of the mission to train Iraqi Defense Force personnel at Taji, north of Baghdad.

"To date the Task Group Taji Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission has trained over 4,000 Iraqi army soldiers, including training and support to three Iraqi army junior leadership courses," Brownlee said in a statement.

"Reporting indicates that after the initial nine months of the mission the training is having a tangible and positive impact on the ability of the Iraqi army to take the fight to Daesh (Islamic State)," he said.

"Units trained by the coalition's numerous Building Partner Capacity missions are performing better than those that have not been through the training program."

The BPC training program was centred on the provision of basic skills, including training in the laws of armed conflict, human rights, basic weapons handling, combat first aid, obstacle breaching techniques and planning for combat operations.

In total, trainers at five coalition BPC sites across Iraq had trained around 19,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces since November 2014.

"While much has been achieved in the nine months since training began at Taji, the Iraqi Army still has a huge fight on its hands to rid its country of the Daesh terrorists," said Brownlee.

"The mission will continue as planned," he said.

The opposition Green Party called on Brownlee to give lawmakers an uncensored version of the review.

Redacted information included discussion on the threat of a potential "insider attack" on New Zealand personnel, and Australian comments on the performance of the New Zealand Defense Force, said Green Party Foreign Affairs spokesperson Kennedy Graham.

"The review is so heavily redacted we have no way of knowing if soldiers in Iraq are safe, or if the mission has been the success that the government claims," Graham said in a statement. Endit