Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress is being made on the mentoring, monitoring and training of Iraqi security forces in southern Iraq.
Des Browne: UK forces in southern Iraq continue to make very good progress in mentoring and training the Iraqi Security Forces. Our main focus is on developing the 14th Division of the Iraqi Army until it is fully operational. We have embedded a significant number of our people with that division in order to help achieve this, and our forces continue to provide a range of other support as well. The performance of 14th Division during recent operations in and around Basra demonstrates the continuing success of our approach.
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