France will send some 40 troops to Iraq in the coming weeks to train Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling the Islamic State group, a military spokesman said Thursday. The advisers will be dispatched to Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurdish capital of Erbil.

More than 3,000 US advisers are already set to be deployed to the region.

The French training mission is expected to last about three months.

“We will advise them on how to prepare operations, how to synchronise efforts against the enemy, how to manage aerial and artillery support, and how to monitor the tactical situation,” said the spokesman, Colonel Gilles Jaron.

“We’re not in a frame of mind where we will be confronting the enemy directly,” he added.

Overall, some 800 French troops are already involved in support roles in the Western coalition against the Islamic State group.

Nine French Rafale war planes, six Mirage jets, a refuelling plane and a navy patrol plane have also been deployed to the Gulf region.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)