HELSINKI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0The United States has presented Nordic governments with a general request for support and assistance, both military and nonmilitary, in the war against the Islamic State group in the Middle East. Nordic governments have indicated that they will respond positively to any formal request from the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The request was communicated through America’s embassies in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, and in communications between senior defense department officials. Government officials in four Nordic countries expect to receive a more specific request outlining force and equipment needs in January 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The issue of a coalition force relating to Syria, Iraq and ISIS has been presented to Finland,” Timo Kantola, director general of Finland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. \u00a0“The request includes both detailed and general items. It identifies a number of different possibilities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The degree of involvement by Sweden’s Armed Forces also has been discussed in communications between Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist and US\u00a0Secretary of Defense\u00a0Ash\u00a0Carter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We are currently processing the request received,” Ministry of Defence spokeswoman Marinette Nyh Radebo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Norway’s defense minister, Ine Eriksen S\u00f8reide, has indicated that the potential type of assistance required by the US\u00a0might include combat aircraft, special forces and\u00a0logistics, as well as providing combat training to local forces, including peshmerga fighters operating in northern Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The level of military assistance is directly connected to the operations of the anti-IS coalition in Iraq and Syria. Finnish specialist troops are already stationed in Erbil, Iraq, on a mission to train Kurdish forces in the fight against IS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For its part, Sweden has deployed 35 specialist soldiers to train anti-IS Kurdish forces in Iraq. The MoD is considering extending the unit’s mission by around six months to December 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The strong desire of Nordic governments to support the U.S.-led anti-IS coalition force stems from growing fears of attacks by radicalized Islamic extremists\u00a0linked to al-Qaida and IS\u00a0in Finland and Scandinavia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two Iraqi nationals are currently in custody and awaiting trial on charges centered on a propaganda video-recording of the execution of 11 unarmed Iraqi Air Force cadets by IS\u00a0in Iraq in June 2014. The two brothers, aged 23, are accused of 11 counts of terrorism related to the murders which took place at Tikrit’s Camp Speicher in the summer of 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two men were arrested by an anti-terrorist task force at an apartment in Forssa, a town located northwest of the Finnish capital Helsinki. The brothers had been under surveillance in a coordinated operation by Finnish national security and intelligence agencies since they arrived in Finland in September 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Sweden, a court sentenced two men, Hassan al-Mandlawi, 32,\u00a0and Al-Amin Sultan,\u00a030, to life in prison for terrorist crimes committed in the city of Aleppo,\u00a0Syria, in April 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court ruled, based on graphic video evidence, that the men were Islamic jihadis\u00a0and were involved in the decapitation-style\u00a0executions of civilians in Syria. The executions were filmed and used by for propaganda purposes, the court found.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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