WELLINGTON, March 24 (Xinhua) -- A joint New Zealand-Australian mission to train Iraqi troops in the fight against Islamic State insurgents has been a success over its first nine months, Defense Minister Gerry Brownlee said Thursday.
However, opposition lawmakers challenged the government to prove this assertion, which was made on the basis of a cabinet review that had been extensively redacted on publication.
"So far this has been a successful mission," Brownlee said after the cabinet accepted the review of the first nine months of the mission to train Iraqi Defense Force personnel at Taji, north of Baghdad.
"To date the Task Group Taji Building Partner Capacity (BPC) mission has trained over 4,000 Iraqi army soldiers, including training and support to three Iraqi army junior leadership courses," Brownlee said in a statement.
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