HELSINKI — Finland is on course to increase the number of specialized troops involved in crisis management operations in Iraq.

The new deployment will double the number of Finnish specialist military personnel serving in Iraq's Kurdistan region to 100.

The government plan, which has secured the approval of Finland's national parliament, the Eduskunta, includes the training and dispatch of an initial 50 specialist troops to northern Iraq by September 2016.

Resulting from the decision, the mission tasked to the designated Finnish armed forces unit will be to reinforce the training of local forces behind the front line. This will involve providing close-combat, reconnaissance and survival skills training to Kurdish peshmerga fighters battling the Islamic State group in northern Iraq.

The Finnish unit will also be tasked with providing "advisory support" to the Kurdish security forces at brigade and battalion levels.

Finland's armed forces have earlier provided specialist troops to train Kurdish peshmerga fighters in combat tactics at bases in northern Iraq, including at the main garrison in Erbil.

Much of the debate in the Eduskunta centered on the high-risk nature of the mission. The planned operational unit will be located close to battle theaters in northern Iraq, areas subject to regular roadside improvised explosive device attacks.

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Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö has also raised the possibility of chemical weapons attacks against Finnish troops.

"The mission unit will be equipped with protective equipment, detectors and other lifesaving materials. It will also have armored vehicles," Niinistö said.

Those specialist units from Finland's armed forces that are deployed to Iraq are already well-trained in IED detection and counter-prevention measures, said Brig. Gen. Petri Hulkko.

Hulkko described the security situation in northern Iraq as "stable," noting that ISIS' initial stranglehold on the region is significantly weaker than it once was.