According to the Middle East News website the ministry welcomed NATO's decision to increase its forces and expand its mission in Iraq.

"The Peshmerga welcomes NATO's decision, and the increase in the number of military advisers in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region will help the fight against the ISIS terrorist group to enter a better phase," Osman Mohammad, the Peshmerga ministry's media officer, told Kurdistan TV24.

Mohammad added: "NATO has provided great support to the Peshmerga in terms of advisory and training, and increasing the number of advisers and military trainers can be effective in facilitating the mission of the Peshmerga forces and their speed and performance."

"The size of our mission will increase from 500 personnel to around 4,000," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday, adding that the increases would be "incremental."

"Training activities will now include more Iraqi security institutions, and areas beyond Baghdad," he stressed.

Stoltenberg insisted that the mission was being carried out "at the request of the Iraqi government."

"It is carried out with full respect for Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity," he said.

Reacting to the possibility of sending more US troops to the Middle East as part of NATO's extensive training mission to support US forces and ensure that ISIS does not regain control of power, Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica L. McNollety said the United States will participate and play its fair share in important and far-reaching mission of the process of forming NATO forces in Iraq.

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