BAGHDAD - NATO member countries
are responding to the Iraqi people's desire for increased security in their
country by providing a large quantity of donated arms and equipment in
support of the Iraqi Armed Forces.
For example, Romania has donated around
6,000 AK-47 rifles and various types of other equipment. A large shipment
of donations from Slovenia arrived this year, including among other things,
around 17,000 AK-47 rifles and around 10,000 helmets. Demark, Estonia,
Greece, Hungary and Latvia have also donated various types of equipment
to the Iraqi Security Forces.
Donations of weapons from many of the East European nations that have now joined NATO are ideal for the Iraqi military because many Iraqis are already familiar with those weapons from the days of the former regime, say western military experts. While not all are new, the weapons are in excellent shape. The above-mentioned donations are estimated to be worth around € 30 million.
The largest donation to date arrived on 11 November. Seventy-seven tanks and four tank-recovery vehicles, donated to the Iraqi Armed Forces by Hungary were delivered and they are now located at Taji, north of Baghdad, which is the headquarters of the Iraqi 9th Division (Mechanized). The tanks were tranferred from Hungary by a combination of land and sea transport and are expected to be operational by mid-December. This donation is estimated to be worth around € 70 million, which takes the total of NATO donations to the Iraqi Armed Forces in 2005 to € 100 million.
In response to a request from the Interim Iraqi Government (IIG), NATO announced at the Istanbul Summit that it had agreed to assist with the training of Iraq's security forces. On October 8, 2004, the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, based in Norfolk, Virginia, established the NATO Training and Equipment Coordination Group (NTECG). The NTECG was created to support the ongoing NATO Training Mission in Iraq (NTM-I), under the Sumpreme Allied Commander Europe. The NTECG's mission is to assist NATO military authorities in training selected Iraqi personnel out-of country, and to develop a NATO role in coordinating and harmonising Iraqi Interim Government equipment needs with national offers to support those requirements. In-country coordination is undertaken by the NTM-I Training, Equipment and Synchronization Cell (TESC), which addresses the Iraqi Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior requirements by coordinating the delivery of NATO nation offers of equipment that meets Iraqi requirements.
NTM-I is in Iraq at the request of Iraqi authorities. The Mission mainly concentrates on training Iraqi officers and assisting the Iraqi Security Forces with donated equipment, not combat operations.
Tel: Iraq, Cell phone: +964 79 01 93
08 05
US Commercial line: +1 914 822-8143
Italy, Cell phone: +39 335 74 03 144
http://www.jfcnaples.nato.int