NATO raises support for targets of Islamic extremism

Associated Press

WARSAW, POLAND

NATO allies agreed Saturday to provide increased military support to countries in the Middle East and North Africa that are targets of Islamic extremism, including using NATO surveillance planes in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Alliance leaders also agreed to launch a new naval mission in the Mediterranean, and made commitments to maintain a stable military presence in Afghanistan and to fund Afghan security forces through 2020.

“We’re moving forward with the most significant reinforcement of our collective defense any time since the Cold War,” President Barack Obama said at a news conference at the end of a crucial NATO summit in Warsaw.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO will start a training and capacity-building mission for Iraqi armed forces in Iraq, a country he called central in the fight against IS. NATO is also working to establish an intelligence center in Tunisia, a major recruiting ground for IS, and will shortly start providing support to Tunisian special operation forces.

“Today we have taken decisions to strengthen our partners and to project stability beyond our borders,” Stoltenberg told reporters. He said millions of people in Africa and the Middle East have been rendered “homeless and helpless” by radical organizations such as IS and that the extremist groups are also to blame for organizing terrorist attacks in Europe and America.