10th support to Iraq

The tenth Spanish contingent to be deployed in Iraq has begun its first missions in the operations zone within the Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) framework.

As a sign of the Army’s commitment to maintaining peace and security in our country, it will continue to train staff from the Iraqi Army and police corps.

The Transference of Authority (TOA) ceremony was carried out in the ‘Gran Capitán’ Base in Besmayah and was presided over by Major General Christopher Ghika, deputy chief of the Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF). The ceremony was also attended by the Spanish Ambassador in Baghdad, Juan J. Escobar Stemmann, and various important members of the Iraqi military, as well as people from the Iraqi Armoured School and the Iraqi Explosives School. The presence of these important figures reflected the strength and importance of Spain’s commitment to the Coalition, to the various allied countries and to the host country, Iraq.

In the ceremony, the 16th ‘Canary Islands’ Brigade took over from the 10th ‘Guzmán el Bueno’ Brigade. In his speech, the contingent’s new chief, Colonel Waldo Barreto Caamaño, emphasised that the ceremony symbolised the continuity, after five years, of the deployment of the Besmayah Task Force which has trained more than 34,000 soldiers and police officers. He highlighted that the new contingent will continue with this commitment, trying to maintain the excellent procedures to work with and for the Iraqi forces and improve their abilities with the aim of bringing down Daesh and establishing the necessary conditions to achieve stability in Iraq.

Those working as part of Operation Support Iraq X will continue will the excellent work which was carried out by the previous contingents, complying with the mission with which they have been tasked and reinforcing the Spanish presence in the international fight against terrorism. The work carried out by Spanish troops in the Inherent Resolve Operation from the International Coalition is centred on training the Iraqi Army as part of the strategy to eradicate terrorism and jihadism, thereby contributing to global security and, consequently, Spanish security.

The BPC X contingent is made up of around 350 soldiers, of which the majority come from the 16th ‘Canary Islands’ Brigade, with the rest coming from different Army and Air Force units. A unit from the Guardia Civil is also participating and is responsible for giving advanced police training to the Iraqi Security Forces.

Spain is part of a multinational coalition of more than 70 countries organised to bring down the self-proclaimed Islamic State (Daesh) within the Inherent Resolve Operation. For this, our country leads one of the four BPCs (Building Partner Capacities), a concept designed to improve the Iraqi Army’s abilities with the support of teams of instructors from other allied armies.