Sweden looking to send military trainers to Erbil

STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Sweden is looking to send troops to the Kurdistan Region to train forces fighting the Islamic State (ISIS), the government said.

Speaking at a defense conference in Stockholm, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said that if the troops get the green light for deployment, they would be going to Erbil as part of the European Union’s efforts to combat terrorism.

"The government is now looking into the possibility of proposing to the Riksdag (parliament) that Swedish military personnel be sent to Erbil to help train troops fighting ISIS,” she said.

“This would be an important contribution to show that we want to share responsibility for meeting a difficult threat,” she added, explaining to Swedish media that “this contribution will not involve active combat."

Wallstrom said that Sweden was already "part of the broad coalition to combat ISIS and support Iraq, a coalition that has brought together some 60 countries and bodies, including the EU and all EU Member States."

Meanwhile, the head of Kurdistan’s Department of Foreign Relations  Falah Mustafa said in Stockholm Monday that many Swedish nationals have already joined the Peshmarga forces as volunteers, but that Erbil hoped for more military support from  European countries.

“We welcome Sweden’s plan to send military trainers which will help us in our struggle against the terrorists, but we need also the moral support from a country like Sweden in the fight against terror groups,” Mustafa told reporters after a meeting with the foreign minister.

Sweden, home to one of the largest Kurdish communities in diaspora, has been under increasing pressure to step up support for Kurdish forces battling ISIS. Five members of the Swedish parliament are of Kurdish origin, representing around 100,000 Kurds who live in Sweden.

Former Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt was in Erbil last September and vowed to increase his country’s humanitarian support for the 1.3 million refugees in Kurdish territories.

Sweden is not a member of NATO and often maintains neutrality in global conflicts. But like several other other European countries it is worried about the threat of citizens returning from jihads in Syria and Iraq.

“We assure the Swedish public that our intelligence services are in full control and will take every legal measure to make sure that the returning jihadis pose no threat,” Anders Thornberg, the director of Sweden’s intelligence agency (SAPO), told Swedish television on Sunday.

He said legal measures will be taken against Swedish nationals who have joined the ISIS abroad.

Around 150 Swedes are believed to have travelled to Syria or Iraq in support of ISIS, of whom 23 people have been killed, according to Swedish authorities.