The five Czech police officers who are part of the NATO training mission in Iraq will leave Iraq due to the limited operation of the training center in Baghdad but plan to return once the mission resumes normal operations, Czech Police President Jan Švejdar announced.
“Due to the interruption of training and limited operation of the Baghdad training center, the Czech police officers will move back to the Czech Republic. At the moment of resumption of standard activity, they will return to Iraq,” said Švejdar.
Czech soldiers operating in Iraq, however, will not return to their homeland. There are forty of them in the country. The Czech State Security Council discussed the situation in the region on Friday but did not change Tuesday’s decision to stay.
“We do not see any immediate threat,” said Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), who, like Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček (ČSSD), expects the situation in the Middle East to settle down.
The security situation in Iraq escalated after attacks on allied troops followed the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleiman, who was targeted with an American missile at Baghdad Airport on Jan. 3.
