The German government in mid-September decided to extend its military mandate in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region by an additional year, continuing its assistance in training and advising armed forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told Rudaw during a presser in Brussels on Thursday that Iraq is not safe.
“We have just renewed this mission because we realized from the recent events, the efforts to seize the Swedish embassy, that the situation is not really calm. I am glad that the prime minister [Sudani] sees it that way, but it was himself who said that they need military support for maintaining security. To bring about stability, the federal parliament did the right thing by extending this mission,” he said.
Hundreds of Iraqi protesters in July stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and set it on fire after Swedish police approved more burnings of the Quran.
The motion still requires the approval of the German Bundestag (parliament), and the additional operational expenses will amount to around €91.6 million (approx. $98.4 million), according to the statement.
Germany has been an essential member of the global coalition against ISIS. The Coalition was formally established in October 2014, after ISIS took control of vast swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria. The US-led, 84-member Coalition defines its mission as that of “degrading and ensuring Daesh’s enduring defeat,” on its website, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group.
ISIS swept through large parts of Iraq in 2014, seizing vast swathes of land and committing countless atrocities, including genocide. The group was territorially defeated in 2017 but it continues to pose serious security risks in the country through hit-and-run attacks, bombings, and abductions, particularly in the disputed areas between Baghdad and Erbil.
Weapons provided by Germany, especially the guided anti-tank MILAN missiles, were very essential in Peshmerga forces’ fight against the terror group.
Gonul Eglence, a member of the regional parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, told Rudaw in August that the Iraqi asylum seekers should not be deported to Iraq because it is not a safe country.
