Jordan will begin training the first group of army troops from neighboring Iraq in the next few weeks as part of the international effort to fight the Islamic State group, according to Iraq's defense minister.
Speaking after meeting Jordanian King Abdullah on Monday, Khaled al Obeidi said Amman would also supply the Iraqi army with arms needed for its drawn-out fight against the radical Islamists who have seized wide swaths of the north and west of his country.
Obeidi aims to rebuild the Iraqi army, which fell apart last summer in the face of the Islamic State's blitz across northern Iraq during which at least four Iraqi divisions crumbled.