Merkel: Germany may step up help training Iraqis

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Germany may step up efforts to help train Iraqi troops outside the country, Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested Sunday, but German leaders made clear that their soldiers would stay out of Iraq. Germany opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq in 2003 and refused to send troops there. However, it has since helped train Iraqi security forces in the United Arab Emirates and agreed to write off debt. Merkel stressed after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that Germany had "an interest in the rebuilding of Iraq moving forward and in violence diminishing."