Jul 7, 2017

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.

The multinational coalition fighting in Iraq is currently working on a two-year plan for the Ministry of Defense. It also is continuing to work with the Ministry of Interior on a plan that aims to prepare Iraq’s police and border guards for duty in provinces that have been liberated from IS.