[Rudaw] The US-led coalition will resume military training for Peshmerga forces in the Kurdistan region by the end of May, a coalition spokesperson told Rudaw on Sunday.
"All trainings for Peshmerga forces are halted for now due to coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
 ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
, but there are ongoing talks between the coalition, NATO
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...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
and Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) to resume the trainings by end of next month," Colonel Myles B.Caggins III told Rudaw Radio.
Coalition forces have been in Iraq since 2014 to train and advise Iraqi and Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
(ISIS). Over the border, they have also been partnered with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreed in 2018 to launch a training mission in Iraq involving around 500 troops with the aim of building up the country’s armed forces so they could better fight ISIS.
However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
following the US dronezap on January 3 which killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani chief at Baghdad airport, the Iraqi parliament passed a non-binding resolution demanding the expulsion of all foreign forces.
Iraq decided in January to review its security relationship with the US-led coalition by attempting to reach a new security agreement with NATO.
"The trainings will be resumed as the threat of ISIS is still high in the area," Caggins added, referring to ISIS by its Arabic acronym.
ISIS has increased its krazed killer activity in recent weeks, with turbans killing an Iraqi federal police officer at a checkpoint in Hawija, western Kirkuk late on Sunday.
This was the third deadly attack on Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in the disputed territories in the past week.
Two Peshmerga fighters were killed and another maimed in an ISIS attack in Kolajo in the Garmiyan area on Tuesday night. Two Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) fighters were also killed near al-Sadeq (Haliwa) military airport in Tuz Khurmatu on Thursday.
The attacks come as coalition troops have scaled down their presence in military bases across Iraq, citing the success of local forces in fighting the terror group.
In the space of a month, the coalition has handed over control of six military bases to the Iraq Security Forces (ISF), including Abu Ghraib near Baghdad, K1 in Kirkuk,
... a thick stew of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds, and probably Antarcticans, all of them mutually hostile most of the time...
al-Qaim near the Syrian border, Qayyarah in western Iraq, al-Sqoor in djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, and al-Taqaddum in Anbar.
However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
Vice President of the Kurdistan Region Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa told Rudaw Radio on Sunday that ISIS is stronger than any time since its military defeat in December 2017.
"ISIS is stronger than ever before since its defeat in December 2017, as now they control land and have military weapons that enable them to track movements of security forces at night," Mustafa said.
"ISIS is almost present in all areas all the way from Harmin to the Syrian border," Mustafa said.
ISIS was declared territorially defeated in Iraq in December 2017. However,
a woman is only as old as she admits...
a low intensity insurgency has continued in Iraq, exploiting security vacuums between rival forces.
Iraq’s disputed territories, which Erbil and Baghdad have long contested, and some western Sunni-majority regions including Anbar, have seen a recent uptick in krazed killer activities, including bombings, ambushes, kidnappings, extortion, and arson.
Mustafa confirmed to Rudaw that ISIS are even conducting military trainings in areas of the disputed territories between Erbil and Baghdad.
"The withdrawal of coalition troops from disputed areas, spread of coronavirus pandemic, and Iraq’s internal issues have strengthen ISIS in Iraq," Mustafa added.
The recent wave of ISIS attacks also comes as the US and the international anti-ISIS coalition draw down and consolidate their missions in Iraq and Syria. 
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