NATO training Iraqis in Serbia's southern town of Nis

NATO announced that it is training medical experts from Iraqs security forces in the Serbian Military Logistics Training Center in the southern town of Nis.

"The (three week) course has been developed within the framework of the NATO Defense Capacity Building Initiative for Iraq," the military alliance said on its website, and added:

"It is focused on developing a skills-set on trauma stabilization and ground-based casualty evacuation for a group of specialists from the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Interior, and the Counter-Terrorism Service. Serbian military medical officers are providing this training."

NATO also said that the course was "a follow-on to a previous initiative conducted in Germany in November."

"In addition to the military medical training, NATO is training instructors from Iraq's security forces in the maintenance of Soviet-era armoured vehicles and in countering improvised explosive devices and the disposal of explosive ordnance. It is also providing support and advice in other areas, including civil-military cooperation, development of national security institutions, and civil emergency planning to deal with natural emergencies," the military alliance announced.