NATO advance guard to go to Iraq in "two or three days"

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The advance guard of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's mission to Iraq will leave this weekend under the command of a Dutch general, an alliance official said.

"An initial group will be leaving in the next two or three days" with the rest of the 40-member team due to follow probably next week, the official said. "They have authority to start training in and outside of Iraq."

The officers, from different nationalities, will be drawn from NATO military headquarters near Mons, Belgium and command centers in Naples and Norfolk, Virgina.

The mission will be commanded by Dutch air force general Carel Hilderink, according to the source, who asked not to be identified.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said earlier that the officers would form "the nucleus of the enlarged training mission" that the alliance agreed to supply at its summit in Istanbul at the end of June.

(more)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040804/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_nato&cid=1514&ncid=1480

Way to go bush. :thumbsdown:

massive Phillipine force.

:think: