German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has said Germany needs to stick around to deliver training to Iraqi troops. She warned that "Islamic State" still has an ideological foothold.
Although the "Islamic State" (IS) group has suffered major military defeats in Iraq, the terror group still has an ideological foothold, the German defense minister warned.
"The fight against IS has left behind deep wounds and scars in the country," von der Leyen said, adding: "it takes patience for these scars to heal and for Iraq to become strong."
She said that the focus of the Bundeswehr's mission in Iraq was "to gain peace."
A German parliamentary mandate for the military assistance program in Iraq was extended in March this year and is due to expire on October 31. It will likely be extended as well, although there has been pushback from the junior coalition partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, the Social Democrats.
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German training mission in Iraq
Von der Leyen met with her Iraqi counterpart, Irfan al-Hayali, on Sunday and toured a military base in Taji, located around 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad.
On August 11, a pilot project kicked off at the base where German soldiers train Iraqi troops in logistics, paramedic training and defusing explosive devices.
The comments came at the end of the second day of von der Leyen's trip to Iraq. She arrived in Baghdad on Saturday after visiting German troops in Jordan, where the international anti-IS coalition is stationed.
Berlin also has about 150 troops stationed in northern Iraq to train Kurdish peshmerga and runs a pilot training program north of Baghdad.
Germany has provided Iraq with around €1.4 billion ($1.63 billion) in development and humanitarian aid, making the country one of the largest recipients of German foreign assistance.
rs/rc (dpa, Reuters)
Germany's NATO missions
Since West Germany's accession to NATO, Berlin has supported numerous operations involving the trans-Atlantic alliance. Since 1990, Germany's Bundeswehr has been deployed on "out of area" missions as well.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke
Germany's role in NATO
West Germany officially joined the trans-Atlantic alliance in 1955. However, it wasn't until after reunification in 1990 that the German government considered "out of area" missions led by NATO. From peacekeeping to deterrence, Germany's Bundeswehr has since been deployed in several countries across the globe in defense of its allies.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Hanschke
Bosnia: Germany's first NATO mission
In 1995, Germany participated in its first "out of area" NATO mission as part of a UN-mandated peacekeeping mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the deployment, German soldiers joined other NATO member forces to provide security in the wake of the Bosnian War. The peacekeeping mission included more than 60,000 troops from NATO's member states and partners.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/H. Delic
Keeping the peace in Kosovo
Since the beginning of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, some 8,500 German soldiers have been deployed in the young country. In 1999, NATO launched an air assault against Serbian forces accused of carrying out a brutal crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists and their civilian supporters. Approximately 550 Bundeswehr troops are still stationed in Kosovo.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/V.Xhemaj
Patrolling the Aegean Sea
In 2016, Germany deployed its combat support ship "Bonn" to lead a NATO mission backed by the EU in the Aegean Sea. The mission included conducting "reconnaissance, monitoring and surveillance of illegal crossings" in Greek and Turkish territorial waters at the height of the migration crisis. Germany, Greece and Turkey had requested assistance from the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/M.Schreiber
Nearly two decades in Afghanistan
In 2003, Germany's parliament voted to send Bundeswehr troops to Afghanistan in support of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Germany became the third-largest contributor of troops and led the Regional Command North. More than 50 German troops were killed during the mission. Germany withdrew the last of its troops in June 2021 as part of the US-led exit from Afghanistan.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/A.Niedringhaus
German tanks in Lithuania
Forming part of NATO's "enhanced forward presence" in the Baltic states, 450 Bundeswehr soldiers have been deployed to Lithuania since 2017. The battalion-size battlegroups there are led by Germany, Canada, the UK and US to reinforce collective defense on the alliance's eastern flank. It forms the "biggest reinforcement of Alliance collective defense in a generation," according to NATO.
