OSLO (Reuters) – Norway will send some 60 troops, including special forces soldiers, to train, advise and give operational support to Syrian fighters battling Islamic State militants, the country’s prime minister said yesterday.
The troops will be based in Jordan. The Norwegian Parliament will need to be consulted if the troops are to operate within Syria, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said.
Norway had previously sent 120 soldiers to Iraq to help to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State in northern Iraq. Those troops are still in Iraq.
Norway’s decision comes a week after the United States announced its biggest expansion of US ground troops in Syria since its civil war began.
The US military has led an air campaign against Islamic State since 2014 in Iraq and Syria, but its effectiveness in Syria has been limited by a lack of allies on the ground, in a country where a multi-sided civil war has raged for five years.
