Britain will send more troops to help train Iraqi armed forces in the battle against the Islamic State militants, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said Wednesday.
The move comes days after the departure of the last British troops from Afghanistan and three years after their withdrawal from Iraq.
Britain had already sent a team to Iraq last month for training Kurdish Peshmerga forces and it had launched its first airstrikes against the Islamic militants in Iraq in September.
Speaking during a visit to Baghdad, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said the details of the mission would be worked out soon.
"We have a small number of people here. We will be looking now to see how we can strengthen that, the liaison work we are doing in the ministries and the security agencies here," Fallon told reporters.
"This is fairly urgent. We will be doing this in the next few weeks. That's what we have been asked to do," he said, reports Reuters.
Fallon, who met top Iraqi government officials during his visit, said that apart from providing training, Britain will also address the shortage of military equipment in Iraqi armed forces.
Elaborating further, Fallon said that Britain will supply machine gun spares, binoculars, and first aid kits to the Iraqi forces.
Britain would also share its knowledge about roadside bombs and car bombs which it had acquired while it fought the Taliban in Afghanistan, Fallon said.
Meanwhile, Labor party's Andy Burnham has supported Fallon's decision saying: "It is an advisory role and that's right at this stage," reports BBC.
Britain is also planning to increase the number of drones it is using in Iraq so as to provide more intelligence and surveillance help to Iraqi forces.
