The German government plans to send up to 650 troops to Mali to help with the peacekeeping mission in the West African state, Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday, according to dpa. The aim of the German plan is to help relieve the military pressure on France in the fight against the terrorist organization ISIS , Von der Leyen said following a meeting of the parliamentary defence committee in Berlin. In addition, the German army mission to help train Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in Iraq is to be extended, Von der Leyan said. The number of soldiers assigned to the Bundeswehr training programme is also to be increased to 150 from 100 soldiers, Von der Leyan said. Both operations still have to approved by the German Parliament, the Bundestag.
