Jordan to Host US Training of Iraqi Troops

US Already Has a Training Mission for Syrian Rebels There

Jordanian Information Mniister Mohammed Momani has confirmed that his government agrees to play host to a new US training operation for the Iraqi military, with details yet to be hashed out.

Momani said it was “consistent with our foreign policy goal of fighting terrorism,” and bragged of Jordan having the best military training facilities in the region.

The US military has been operating in Jordan for quite awhile, training Syrian rebel factions that were supposed to overthrow the Assad government. At the time Jordan was touting the plan as ensuring the moderates position in the rebellion, though since then the moderates have lost most of their territory to al-Qaeda and other Salafist factions.

With the infrastructure of one failed US training mission still apparently in place, it could be that the plan is simply to transition those trainers over to the Iraqi military.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.