Defense budget to provide broader Iraq security support
A Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act, set to be released next week, will provide greater leeway for support for Iraqi homeland security.
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense budget proposal will give the United States greater authority to support Iraqi agencies tasked with securing the homeland.
The upper chamber’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, set for release next week, allows the Office of Security Cooperation in Iraq — a US office tasked with developing Iraq’s military — to extend their support to police and civilian security organizations, including the Ministry of the Interior, according to a committee aide.
The Office of Security Cooperation, housed in the US Embassy in Baghdad, has traditionally focused on supporting Iraq’s Ministry of Defense and Counterterrorism service. The bill, aides say, will give US officials more leeway to support Iraqi police and homeland protection agencies as they develop a long-term strategy to secure the country.
Those plans are progressing as US-led troops and Iraqi forces clear out the final streets of the strategically vital city of Mosul after more than eight months of intense block-by-block combat that has left much of the city in ruins. On Thursday, officials for the US-led coalition said that Iraqi security forces had pushed into the last 500 square meters of Islamic State (IS) holdings in the city.
