Canada weighing contribution to expanded NATO training mission in Iraq

Canada is considering how it can contribute to an expanded NATO training mission in Iraq, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said Thursday.

The military alliance, which already has a small team in Iraq instructing local security forces in bomb disposal, has announced it will step up its efforts in the war-ravaged country by opening new military academies.

The allies are running a training program for Iraqi troops in neighbouring Jordan.

The decision to proceed with the expanded mission was given the green light by NATO in Brussels today.

The details have not yet been worked out.

"Once planning is completed, it will give us a much better perspective of the contributions we can make," said Sajjan from Brussels, where he is attending the NATO Defence Ministerial Meeting this week.

Canada already has a handful of combat engineers working with the existing alliance training mission, which is showing Iraqi troops how to dismantle roadside bombs and booby traps.

The expanded training mission would be headquartered in Baghdad, but some elements could also operate out of Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

NATO diplomats, speaking on background to The Associated Press, said the new mission could involve as many as 200 troops.

Washington is keen to stabilize Iraq after almost four years of intense fighting to eject Islamic State extremists, who conquered vast swaths of territory in the north and west of the country.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has asked allies for $88 billion to rebuild the country.

A donors conference in Baghdad has seen only a fraction of that sum pledged.

Washington has committed slightly less than $4 billion. On Tuesday, Canada pledged $12 million for "rehabilitation of critical infrastructure."

Sajjan confident training will work this time

Following the U.S.-led invasion that brought down the government of dictator Saddam Hussein, the Americans disbanded the Iraqi army and undertook an intensive program to train a new one. When it came time to fight, that army melted away after ISIS swept across the border from Syria.

Sajjan said it's too early to say what type of trainers Canada could offer the new mission, but suggested he's confident the lessons will stick this time.

"If the Iraqi security forces had the ability to withstand some of the challenges they faced early on, we wouldn't have been in this situation," he said.

The Liberal government promised last June to keep Canadian troops in Iraq until 2019, but it has never been clear about what those troops would do.

The vast majority of them have been operating under the command of the U.S.-led coalition.

Special forces training for both Iraqi and Kurdish forces was suspended last fall after the rival factions started battling each other.

Sajjan signalled just before Christmas that the mission would get another makeover, but was not clear on what it would look like.

The commander of Canadian special forces, Maj.-Gen. Mike Rouleau, has submitted recommendations on what the next phase could be for his forces, but offered no details.

He did say ISIS still poses a threat, but extremists likely will carry on an insurgent campaign rather than stand and fight in conventional battles, the way they have over the last four years.

Defence experts have said future training of Iraqi forces could involve instruction in how to wage a counter-insurgency campaign.

It's not clear whether the new NATO venture will embrace that aspect.

Canada back in the AWACs program

Sajjan also spoke Thursday about Canada's plan to rejoin NATO's airborne early warning team, a long-standing contribution that had been cancelled by the former Conservative government.

Canada had, for many years, contributed pilots and technicians to the alliance's AWACs program.

It also helped pay for the upkeep of the planes, which detect airborne threats and perform surveillance.

But the contribution was dropped as part of a series of budget cuts.

Sajjan said it's a valuable program. Rejoining it will cost Canada up to $20 million per year.