BAGHDAD, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- With 80 percent of the new military hardware in Iraq purchased from the United States, the Iraqi army may need Western military trainers, officials said.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden lauded bilateral ties with Baghdad during a two-day trip to Iraq this week.
Biden said a new phase in the U.S.-Iraq relationship had begun under the guidelines of the Strategic Framework Agreement signed by the two countries.
U.S. forces under the terms of a Status of Forces Agreement are obligated to leave Iraq by the end of December. Considerations for an extended stay were abandoned by Iraqi lawmakers who wouldn't extend immunity privileges to U.S. forces.
Abbas al-Bayati, a member of the Security and Defense Committee in Baghdad, told Radio Free Iraq that U.S. and NATO military trainers were needed for the fledgling Iraqi military.
Liqaa al-Yasin, a member of the political bloc loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada Sadr, told the bureau that "three recommendations were presented to the Iraqi government in regard (to training), including one that foreign or specifically NATO instructors may be contracted to train the Iraqi army so long as they are not American."
Biden was greeted with protests from Sadr's supporters during his visit.
U.S. President Barack Obama had said all U.S. forces, save those assigned to protect the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, would be home for the holidays.
