PM will send troops to train Iraqi forces

New Zealand will send a small number of troops to Iraq to help train local forces in their battle against the Islamic State group, Prime Minister John Key announced on Tuesday.

Key told lawmakers the country would deploy up to 143 military personnel, who would be based "behind the wire" and would train Iraqi security forces rather than being actively involved in combat missions.

Key and his government made the decision without putting it to a parliamentary vote, a contentious move which some say was prompted because the government didn't have the support it needed to win such a vote.

Key said most of the troops would likely be based in the Taji military base north of Baghdad as part of a joint mission with Australia. He said the two-year deployment would begin about May and would be reviewed by the government after nine months.

Key said the government had been considering options to expand the humanitarian assistance it was already providing.

"Sending our forces to Iraq is not an easy decision but it is the right decision," Key said in a statement to told lawmakers. "We stand up for what's right."

The announcement was criticized by opposition Labour Party leader Andrew Little, who said New Zealand should not be sending troops to Iraq and that lawmakers should have been given the opportunity to vote on the issue.

Little said it was unrealistic to say the troops would be there purely in a noncombat role.

"They won't just be behind the wire, they will be exposed to the much wider conflict," Little said. "And it won't just be the soldiers we send to Iraq, it will be Kiwis traveling around the world."

Little said the Iraqi army was broken, treacherous and corrupt and was not the right organization to defeat the Islamic State group.

Key said New Zealand was one of 62 nations that were part of an international coalition battling the group.

AP - Reuters - Xinhua