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The Prime Minister says no discussions have been held on a possible extension of a New Zealand Defence Force training mission in Iraq.

Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee has just completed a secret visit to Kiwi forces currently stationed at Camp Taji, where they have been training the Iraqi army combatting the Islamic State in key cities like Mosul.

Brownlee wants to see New Zealand soldiers move into an intelligence role, and believes they could have a future mission in helping rebuild Iraq and fix the conditions that allowed the Islamic State to establish itself.

Asked if the mission may be further extended, Prime Minister Bill English said it hasn't been discussed.

"I'll be getting advice from the defence minister and the chief of defence," English said. "We're pleased with the role New Zealand troops are playing there - it does look like they're making progress and we're pleased we've been able to contribute."

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No decision on keeping NZ troops in Iraq - Newstalk ZB

Reuters

Trump makes up with Iraq's leader after travel-ban snub Charlotte Observer President Donald Trump welcomed Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi to the White House on Monday to talk about the fight against the Islamic State and to smooth over any lingering hurt feelings about the administration's original decision to include ... Iraq's Abadi says he wins Trump's assurances of more US supportReuters Trump Bashes Predecessors' Iraq Strategies in Abadi MeetingBloomberg Trump, al-Abadi and Iraq's futureHuffington Post Washington Times -Business Insider all 61 news articles »

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Trump makes up with Iraq's leader after travel-ban snub - Charlotte Observer

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An Iraqi man holds a flag during a march in defiance of US threats to invade Iraq, on Feb. 4, 2003, in the city of Mosul. Thousands of men and women in military fatigues and carrying assault rifles chanted, No peace, no surrender.

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Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Lt. Col. Rickey Grabowski addresses the US Marines of Task Force Tarawa in the northern desert of Kuwait at Camp Shoup on March 19, 2003, the day before their move north to invade Iraq.

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Pool / Getty Images

President George W. Bush meets with US House leaders to brief them on his upcoming speech on Iraq, at the White House on March 17, 2003. From left to right: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, US House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Bush, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Bush had given Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein 48 hours to flee the country or face invasion.

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Ramzi Haidar / AFP / Getty Images

Smoke covers the presidential palace compound in Baghdad on March 21, 2003, during a massive US-led air raid on the Iraqi capital. The invasion plunged the country into a deadly insurgency despite a sweeping political transformation.

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Marco Di Lauro / Getty Images

US missiles hit Baghdad on March 21, 2003.

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Patrick Baz / AFP / Getty Images

Iraqis carry an injured employee at the al-Salhiya telecommunications center after it was hit by a missile during a coalition air raid in Baghdad.

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Eric Feferberg / AFP / Getty Images

US Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, wake up in a mud field after heavy sandstorms early in the morning of March 26, 2003, in Nasiriyah, about 300 kilometers south of Baghdad.

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Joe Raedle / Getty Images

A US Marine from Task Force Tarawa patrols a wheat field in search of enemy combatants or stockpiles of weapons on March 31, 2003, in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, site of one of the bloodiest battles so far of the war.

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Getty Images

A man is taken out of an ambulance at a hospital after a weapons cache exploded injuring dozens of people on April 14, 2003, in a part of Baghdad. While parts of the capital were still reeling from fighting and looting, other parts of the city began to show signs of normalcy as people rode buses, shopped in markets, and went on with everyday life.

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Ramzi Haidar / AFP / Getty Images

Fifteen-year-old Ali Isamil is comforted by his grandmother in a Baghdad hospital on April 3, 2003. Ismail suffered fourth-degree burns and had both arms amputated as a result of the coalition bombing of the Diala bridge area, which killed six members of his family.

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Scott Nelson / Getty Images

US Army 3rd Division 3-7 Infantry Lt. Mike Washburn (kneeling), from Yorktown, Virginia, orders an Iraqi woman to the ground so she can be searched during a search and destroy mission March 27, 2003, near the town of An Najaf, Iraq. The 3rd Infantry Division continued to push further north into Iraq but were hampered by pro-Saddam militiamen carrying out ambushes and attacks using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

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Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty Images

US soldiers arrest a suspected Iraqi soldier at a checkpoint in the southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr on April 5, 2003.

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Cris Bouroncle / AFP / Getty Images

US Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, emerge from a building on March 25, 2003, during the takeover of a hospital allegedly used for military purposes by Iraqi forces at the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.

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Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty Images

British soldiers advance toward central Basra April 7, 2003.

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Sean Smith / Getty Images

A dead body is abandoned on a table outside a hospital in Baghdad on April 11, 2003. Lack of water and electricity and poor security left the Baghdad hospital system in a state of collapse after the US invasion.

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Alex Wong / Getty Images

Callie Gates (left) of Boston and Amelia Rutter of Minneapolis sing during an anti-war candlelight vigil at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC on March 16, 2003, the same day President George W. Bush met with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar for a summit on Iraq.

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Photofusion / Getty Images

A vigil outside English Parliament during an Iraq debate and vote by MPs in London on March 18, 2003.

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Greg Wood / AFP / Getty Images

Workers begin to clean up a No War slogan painted on the Concert Hall sail of the Sydney Opera House on March 18, 2003. Two anti-war protesters were arrested after they scaled the building to paint the slogan, which remained clearly visible as Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced his countrys decision to commit to a US-led invasion of Iraq.

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Getty Images

Iraqi National Museum Deputy Director Mushin Hasan holds his head in his hands as he sits on destroyed artifacts in Baghdad on April 13, 2003, after the museum had been severely looted in recent days.

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Romeo Gacad / AFP / Getty Images

US Army Sgt. Craig Zentkovich photographs a pink bedroom at Saddam Husseins presidential palace on April 13, 2003.

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Patrick Baz / AFP / Getty Images

A US Army Ranger displays gold- and silver-plated Kalashnikov rifles belonging to Uday, the eldest late son of Saddam Hussein, found at his mothers residence in Baghdads main presidential place on April 16, 2003.

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Rick Loomis / Getty Images

A US Army solider attempts to pet a cheetah after it and several other animals were left behind when members of the Iraqi regime fled the Presidential Palace complex area during the US invasion. Most of the animals appeared to be undernourished and in poor health.

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Chris Hondros / Getty Images

A US Marine pulls down a poster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on March 21, 2003, in Safwan, Iraq. Chaos reigned in southern Iraq as coalition troops continued their offensive to remove Iraqs leader from power.

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Ramzi Haidar / AFP / Getty Images

A US Marine covers the face of Iraqi President Saddam Husseins statue with the US flag in Baghdads al-Fardous square on April 9, 2003. The toppling of the statue was immediately seized on as symbolizing the overthrow of one of the worlds most notorious despots.

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Getty Images

On April 7, 2003, US Marines carry the body of Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, one of the first Americans killed in the US-led Operation Iraqi Freedom on March 21. Gutierrez came to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant from his native Guatemala and was posthumously made a citizen of the US.

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Stephen Jaffe / AFP / Getty Images

President George W. Bush addresses the nation aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, before a large Mission Accomplished banner, on May 1, 2003.

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26 Pictures From The Early Days Of The Iraq War

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26 Pictures From The Early Days Of The Iraq War - BuzzFeed News

A car bomb has killed at least 23 people and wounded 45 more in Baghdad's southwestern Amil neighborhood, Iraqi officials said.

No one has claimed responsibility for the Monday evening attack, but Islamic State has carried out similar attacks in Baghdad and other cities as their hold on Mosul weakens.

The blast happened at 1600 UTC, a busy time in a business district of Baghdad.

Islamic State militants have suffered a string of defeats over the past two years, losing more than 60 percent of the territory they once held in the country. Iraqi forces, backed by the US-led international coalition, are now closing in on retaking Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.

The militarized Federal Police say they are about 500 meters from al-Nuri mosque, where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made a rare public appearance in July 2014, announcing a self-styled caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

The attack comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is to meet Monday with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Washington for talks that are likely to include the ongoing offensive to recapture the key northern city of Mosul from Islamic State militants.

Originally posted here:
Car Bomb Kills 23 in Iraq's Capital - Voice of America

For the moment, the Iraqi army, Kurdish peshmerga forces, Shia militias and Sunni tribal units are all united in fighting ISIS. But even in Sulaimani, an Iraqi-Kurdish city close to the border with Iran that is one of the most stable corners of a very unstable Middle East, there is considerable worry about what comes next. As a senior Iraqi government official put it to me: "This is the $64,000 question."

Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, is where almost three years ago ISIS declared its self-styled caliphate.

This month Iraqi forces seized Mosul's main government building and central bank from ISIS militants and they are now closing in on the historic Al Nuri mosque where ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, first declared himself to be caliph, an astonishing claim asserting that Baghdadi was not only the leader of ISIS, but also the leader of all Muslims around the world.

Baghdadi's caliphate has proven relatively short-lived. ISIS has lost more than half of the territory that it once held in Iraq. Iraqi soldiers liberated eastern Mosul weeks ago and they are now working their way through western Mosul, on the other side of the Tigris River, which bisects the city.

The final push to dislodge ISIS from Mosul is a tough fight. Western Mosul is the historic heart of one of the oldest cities in the world. Its narrow streets and alleyways are impassable for armored vehicles. Most of the ISIS fighters who remain in Mosul are willing to fight to the death and ISIS has deployed a large number of suicide bombers and even armed drones to disrupt the Iraqi military advance. Already ISIS has launched a furious counter attack to reclaim the main government building in Mosul.

Several hundred thousand civilians are hunkered down in their homes in western Mosul, with half of them at risk of being displaced by the fighting, according to Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq. Grande told a conference in Sulaimani earlier this month, "We cannot rule out the risk of a prolonged siege" in western Mosul.

But after the sobering task of driving ISIS from Mosul is completed, an even more challenging question remains: Can Iraq remain in one piece?

On Monday Iraqi Prime Minster Haider al-Abadi met with President Donald Trump in Washington DC. That meeting came ahead of a conference in Washington later this week of the 68 countries that make up the anti-ISIS coalition. What comes after the defeat of ISIS in Iraq will surely be a key part of the discussions among the coalition.

In a country that has endured a brutal civil war at the height of which a decade ago 100 civilians were dying every day, there is understandable fear among Iraqis that once ISIS is largely defeated, the anti-ISIS alliance that includes Kurdish peshmerga forces, Shia militias and Sunni tribal units and which has held together Iraq's fractious ethnicities and sects will dissolve.

In order to avoid conflict between these various forces inside Mosul, a political agreement was hammered out before the Mosul operation began in October that allowed only the Iraqi army into the city and excluded the various Kurdish, Shia and Sunni militias that are also fighting ISIS. It is the elite special forces of Iraq's Counter Terrorism Service and, in particular, its Golden Division, that is doing the bulk of the fighting inside the city.

The United States is supporting the Iraqi military with a mix of Special Operations Forces, intelligence and close air support. That last category includes armed drones, manned aircraft and Apache helicopters.

But what comes after ISIS loses Mosul? Or to invoke General David Petraeus' famous question at the beginning of Iraq War in 2003: "Tell me how this ends?" Nearly a decade and half later, Petraeus' question is still a very good one, as there is still a great deal of uncertainty about the future of Iraq.

On the plus side of the ledger, the largely Shia government of Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi is, by Iraqi standards, a relatively stable government and Abadi himself is a moderate Shia politician, unlike his highly sectarian predecessor, Nouri al Maliki.

Balanced against that, a senior Iraqi government official told me, when Mosul falls, "There will be plenty of revenge killings outside of the media lens," adding that, "the government will not intervene." The official said that reconstruction of the heavily damaged city "will take a while" and reconciliation between the six ethnicities and sects that inhabit Mosul is going "to be tough." That's because in some cases half of a particular tribe was for ISIS and the other half was against it.

Also for many Kurds the success of the Kurdish peshmerga on the battlefield is more than a matter of ethnic pride. It may lead to the creation of "facts on the ground" that argue for the creation of the long-cherished dream of a Kurdish state.

At the same time Sunnis, who make up the majority of Mosul's population, are leery of the Shia militias and the Shia-dominated Iraqi government, and if their interests are marginalized as they have been repeatedly in years past, they will throw their support -- or at least their acquiescence -- to any Sunni militia group that seems to be fighting for their interests, just as some did with ISIS and before that its parent group, Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Add to these factors the understanding that the fall of Mosul will do nothing, of course, to end the continuing civil war in neighboring Syria, which is where ISIS first made significant battlefield gains. What remains of ISIS's Iraqi branch after the fall of Mosul will likely regroup in Syria.

All of these factors are likely to cause continuing instability in much of Iraq.

Fortunately, Trump's new executive order to temporarily ban the travel from six Muslim-majority countries to the United States no longer includes Iraq, as the first version of the travel ban did. This will make Monday's visit between Abadi and Trump a much warmer one than if the Iraq travel ban were still on the table. This made Monday's visit between Abadi and Trump a much warmer one than if the Iraq travel ban were still on the table.

The arbitrary nature of the Iraqi travel ban was underlined by the fact that Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati, who is the most important leader in the anti-ISIS fight since he heads the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Service, could not get a visa to visit his own family members in the United States.

Now that Abadi has met Trump, he should invite him to visit Iraq and see a city such as Sulaimani which is, by regional standards, a safe and well-ordered city of smooth highways and modern apartment blocks ringed by snow-capped mountains that feels a lot freer and more open than much of the rest of the Middle East.

At the American University in Sulaimani, female students wear a wide range of garb, from simple headscarves to tight-fitting dresses paired with high heels. At the annual Suli Forum that was held at the American University this month, students didn't hesitate to pepper Lt. Gen. Shaghati, with pointed questions about the use of force against civilians, a level of free speech that is almost entirely absent in the rest of the region.

A little exposure to a city like Sulaimani will help Trump understand that the Middle East is a much more complex place than he seems to believe. Perhaps Trump could even give a speech at the American University in Sulaimani, just as President Obama did at Cairo University early in his first term. In the speech, Trump could celebrate the open society and free market that exists in Kurdistan and which are, of course, not only American values, but also the values of free peoples all over the world.

This article has been updated to reflect President Trump's meeting with Prime Minister Abadi.

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Will Iraq survive victory over ISIS in Mosul? - CNN