Spain Plans to Increase Military Contingent in Iraq

Spain is planning to increase its military contingent in Iraq up to 400 servicemen, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said.

MADRID (Sputnik) — There are currently some 300 Spanish servicemen at the Besmaya training camp, south of Baghdad, where the Iraqi soldiers are being trained and advised by the US-led Coalition member states.

In late October, former Foreign Minister of Spain Jose Garcia-Margallo visited the camp and said that Spain planned to send additional troops to Iraq after the liberation of Mosul. However, before the new government of Spain was formed, the move was impossible to implement. The composition of new government was introduced by Rajoy in early November.

"Soon we will have to appeal to the Congress [of Deputies] to ask for its support to increase the number of our soldiers — both the Civil Guard officers and the military. We want their number to reach 400, that is asked by our allies," Rajoy said, as quoted by the Cadena COPE radio station.

Rajoy said that the war against terrorism had been led on a global scale, and everyone engaged in it must understand its importance.

The US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State, which is prohibited in Russia and many other countries, in Iraq and Syria since 2014.