BUDAPEST, February 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – U.S. military experts started training Iraqi exiles in Taszar military base in Hungary, 120 miles south of the capital Budapest, to help the U.S. troops in their forthcoming invasion of Iraq.

Hungary is allowing the United States to train up to 3,000 Iraqi exiles at the base.

The training is to be in two maximum 90-day sessions under an accord between the Hungarian and U.S. governments, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Monday, February 3.

“Their training started today. The volunteers will be trained in a variety of important and necessary skills in support of the coalition forces in the event of a potential war with Iraq,” AFP quoted U.S. Major Robert Stern as saying.

The training will be in two parts, with the first phase focusing on basic skills such as self-defense, the law of armed conflict including the Geneva Conventions, human rights, rules of engagement and ethical decision-making,

“As part of their self-defense training in phase one, the volunteers will learn such protective measures as basic first aid, land mine identification, training in the use of small arms for self-defense and the use of protective equipment in the event of a nuclear, biological and chemical attack,” U.S. Army Major General David W. Barno, the Training Task Force commander, said.

However, Stern and Barno asserted that the Iraqi exiles will play a pivotal role in facilitating communication between the allied forces and private volunteer organizations.

“They will learn a variety of skills in the conduct of civil military operations, guide and liaison work and rear area support functions and we are going to focus much of their training on civil military support functions,” Barno said.

“This is going to be the main role they will perform in support of coalition forces in the event of a possible conflict,” he added.

According to Hungarian defense sources, the first group of volunteers arrived in Taszar last week.

More volunteers, selected by Iraqi opposition groups in various countries of the world and screened by the U.S. government, were expected to arrive later, AFP quoted Stern as saying.

The U.S. military was acting under the Iraqi Liberation Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1997, which allocated up to 97 million dollars for training and equipping Iraqi opposition groups.

Meanwhile, the chief of the United States interest section, a Polish diplomat, and two other diplomats representing U.S. interests will leave Baghdad by road on Wednesday for Amman.

“Krzysztof Bernacki will leave very shortly for long consultations in his country,” AFP quoted U.S. diplomats as saying.

Poland has represented American interests in Iraq since June 1991, in the wake of the Gulf War that saw a U.S.-lead multinational coalition expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait after a seven-month occupation.

Turkish Gov’t Seeks Parliamentary War Approval

Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul, meanwhile, said Monday his government would seek parliamentary approval this week for military action in preparation for a possible war in neighboring Iraq.   

“This week we will resort to parliament,” AFP quoted Gul as telling reporters after talks on Iraq with the leader of the opposition party in parliament, Deniz Baykal.

For his part, Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis said Saturday, February 1, the government had no immediate plans to ask parliament to approve the deployment of a large U.S. force on its soil or the sending of Turkish soldiers abroad.

He, however, indicated however that his government might ask parliament to approve an initial U.S. deployment of Army Corps engineers to upgrade military bases that might be used in case of war.