US ramps up counter-WMD spending amid Mideast proliferation threats
The Pentagon is putting $6 million into countering weapons of mass destruction in five Middle Eastern countries, as US special operations forces take control of the fight.
![ISRAEL-ODDLY/ An Israeli Defence Force (IDF) reservist from the Home Front Command wears a protective suit during an exercise, together with hospital staff, simulating a chemical warfare attack at the Wolfson Hospital in Holon near Tel Aviv March 26, 2015. REUTERS/Baz Ratner
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The Donald Trump administration is spending $6 million on a handful of US allies in the Middle East to help keep mass-casualty bombs and chemical agents out of the hands of terrorists.
The Pentagon grants, detailed in recent congressional correspondence reviewed by Al-Monitor, are part of a $28 million package of train-and-equip funds used to help foreign militaries around the world stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Between 2014 and 2017, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Pentagon’s in-house agency formed a decade ago to counter weapons of mass destruction (WMD), allocated $17 million to help foreign militaries respond to dangerous incidents.