Summary
The violence surrounding waves of anti-government protests across Iraq has been "an absolute tragedy," NATO's Iraq chief told AFP Sunday at the close of his year-long mandate.
The year-old operation advises and trains Iraqi troops at three military schools, but Fortin said it did not have a mandate to train forces in crowd control.
Iraq's army was dissolved after the United States-led invasion of 2003 that toppled then-dictator Saddam Hussein.
US, European, NATO and other forces are still deployed across Iraq to train security forces.
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