Scott Morrison meets Australian troops in pre-Christmas visit to Iraq

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has visited Australian troops in Iraq, thanking them for their service ahead of the festive season.

Mr Morrison met with around 800 Australian servicemen and women in the region, many helping to train Iraqi security forces in the troubled country.

“Whether it’s what we’re doing now or what I know many of you have been doing for many, many years now, the Government thanks you, the Parliament thanks you and the other thing is the country does,” Mr Morrison told the troops at the Task Force Taji base.

The avid Cronulla Sharks supporter brought gifts of rugby league and Australian rules footballs.

Mr Morrison also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi on his trip, stressing the nation’s commitment to fighting terror threats posed by the Islamic State group and Al Qaeda.

“The stability of Iraq is the stability of the region, and the stability of the region would be stability for the whole world,” Mr Abdul-Mahdi said.

Australia has had a presence in the region since 2001, which Mr Morrison said would continue.

“We talked about how Australia’s role is transitioning and moving … more into that traditional ‘train-trainer’ role and that will continue to evolve,” he said.

“We’ll work that through with our coalition partners in the months and years ahead.”