New Zealand, Australian troops train first Iraqi police for combat

New Zealand and Australian troops have trained their first group of Iraqi police officers at their joint training base in Iraq, the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) said Tuesday.

About 1,900 members of the Iraqi Federal Police had completed five weeks of basic combat training at Camp Taji, north of Baghdad, bringing to more than 20,000 the total number of Iraqi security forces trained by the joint training task group.

The graduates comprised the first batch of police trained by Task Group Taji in the fight against Islamic State (Daesh) insurgents.

"This is not just a training milestone," Major General Tim Gall, the Commander Joint Forces New Zealand, said in a statement.

"The latest batch of trainees to march out now form part of stabilization forces who are working to ensure that the gains made against Daesh -- in Ramadi, Fallujah, east Mosul and other parts of Iraq -- are sustained," said Gall.

The task force of about 100 New Zealand and 300 Australian troops was ensuring a steady flow of capable fighters to sustain the Iraqi military's counter-offensive against Daesh and keep the militants from regaining footholds in areas that had been cleared.

New Zealand had been contributing troops to train Iraqi forces May 2015.

The New Zealand government announced in June 2016 that it had extended the NZDF contribution to the training mission until November 2018.

Small groups of the NZDF training and force protection teams were travelling for short periods to other secure training locations in Iraq.

Since last November New Zealand soldiers had been training stabilization forces such as the Iraqi Border Guards in addition to the Iraqi Army. Endit