Baghdad pays Egypt to train Iraqi soldiers

Iraqi defence officials announced on Tuesday that they will send four military regiments of the Iraqi army to Egypt to be trained - in return for payment.

The agreement followed Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi's visit to Egypt last month where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

"It is hoped that the heads of four Iraqi military regiments of ground troops will head to Egypt in a few weeks where they will receive training at the School of Egyptian Special Forces," a senior military official at the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad told The New Arab.

According to the official, the training will focus on the rules of engagement in a variety of settings, street warfare, rescuing hostages, dismantling improvised explosive devices and dealing with "terrorist threats".

The agreement also reportedly includes training in communication and surveillance.

The Iraqi Ministry of Defence confirmed on Tueday that training would begin in Egypt in two months.

At the end of last month, the Iraqi Defence Ministry said that Egypt had also promised to sell weapons to the Iraqi army.

According to Iraqi members of the delegation who visited Cairo, the Egyptian minister of defence emphasised that Egypt's weapon stores were always "open to their brothers in Iraq who are fighting the forces of terrorism".

The Egyptian-Iraqi military agreement is the first of its kind regarding the provision of training, although Baghdad previously purchased heavy weaponry from Egypt in early 2014, after a delay in the US provision of arms to the Iraqi military. 

Both the Egyptian and Iraqi military rely heavily on support from the United States, which provides weapons for the countries to tackle militants.  

However, security forces in both countries have also been accused of carrying out rampant human rights violations and oppression under the pretext of tackling terrorism.