British military officers are heading back to Iraq to help train and advise the country’s army in its fight against Islamic State, Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, has said.
Morgan gave confirmation before a government statement on the operation, after reports that a small number of officers would be sent to a US-led training centre in Baghdad.
She told the BBC’s Daily Politics show: “It is in a training and advisory role, it is not combat troops. I think this is a big threat to the whole of the Middle East, it’s a big threat to our own security, and I think any responsible government will be looking at all the ways in which we are able to support the Iraqi troops in their battle against IS.”
The move comes days after the departure of the last UK troops from Afghanistan and three years after their withdrawal from Iraq.
David Cameron, the prime minister, has promised there will be no troops on the ground fighting Isis, but the UK has been taking part in military air strikes over Iraq. A small number of personnel have been helping to train Kurdish peshmerga forces.
Pressure has been growing to provide more assistance to the new Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, as Iraqi forces struggle to reclaim territory in the north and west. The US has sent about a dozen teams of specialists who are advising Iraqi commanders in Baghdad and Irbil.
British troops were part of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 that overthrew Saddam Hussein, and later took responsibility for Basra and the south of the country. The last combat troops with Operation Telic, as it was called, left in April 2009, with a small number staying on to train Iraqi forces until 2011.
