New Zealand to withdraw all forces from Iraq by June 2020
The New Zealand government decided to pull out all
non-combat forces from Iraq by June 2020.
New Zealand has a small contingent of 95 so-called
noncombat personnel deployed at the Taji Military Complex northwest of Baghdad,
where they are tasked with training Iraqi security forces.
The training mission is a joint operation with
Australia, which has about 300 troops stationed at Taji.
The New Zealand force will by gradually downsized to
75 trainees by the end of July 2019 then to 45 by January before they are all
withdrawn in June 2019.
In earlier statements, New Zealand Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern said the troops had made a big contribution at Taji, where more
than 40,000 Iraqi security forces had been trained since New Zealand's
deployment began in 2015.
"I think they have done an incredible job, but
their job is coming to an end," she said. "And now it's time to bring
them home and look at the contribution our defense force can make elsewhere.
