NATO has suspended the training of Iraqi forces to ensure the safety of several hundred mission members amid fears for regional stability after Friday's US air strike in Baghdad.
A spokesman for the alliance said it was monitoring the situation in the region very closely amid concern that the killing of Iran's second-most powerful man, General Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad Airport, could trigger a conflagration in the Middle East.
"The safety of our personnel in Iraq is paramount," acting NATO spokesman Dylan White said in a statement on Saturday.
"We continue to take all precautions necessary. NATO's mission is continuing, but training activities are temporarily suspended."
White said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg had spoken by phone with US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper since Friday's attack on Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Soleimani.
NATO Mission Iraq (NMI), made up of several hundred trainers, advisers and support staff from both countries of the 29-member alliance and non-NATO partner countries, includes military and civilian personnel.
Established in Baghdad in October 2018 after three years of war against Islamic State, NMI is a a non-combat 'train-and-advise' mission to help Iraqi security structures and institutions fend off future insurgencies.
Its personnel do not deploy alongside Iraqi forces during their operations.
The current commander of the NATO mission is Major General Jennie Carignan of Canada.
Separately, the German military said on Friday that the United States and its allies had suspended training of Iraqi forces under a US-led counter-terrorism mission known as Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) due to the increased threat.
OIR, commanded by US Lieutenant General Pat White, was set up in 2014 to counter the threat posed by Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and its mandate now includes follow-on operations to bolster regional stability.
