Jordan starts training Libya police

GlobalPost

Jordan has started training Libyan policemen as part of a program aimed at boosting ties between the two countries.

The 10,000 recruits – who are all members of the rebel forces that helped topple long-time Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi last year – will take part in a three-month course in security, public order and investigative work at the international police academy outside Jordan’s capital, Amman, the BBC reports.

A government statement issued Wednesday also said that 550 Libyan officers are to receive special forces training in counter-terrorism, according to the Associated Press.

More from GlobalPost: Libya's security depends on former rebels, for better or worse

The deal, signed by Tripoli and Amman in December, forms part of a wider effort to reintegrate more than 200,000 former rebels into Libyan society and halt clashes between disparate and ill-disciplined groups who are continuing to float around the country, the Agence France Presse reports.

On Tuesday Libya’s deputy interior minister, Omar al-Khadrawi, announced that 70,000 ex-rebels had been employed by the country’s new security services.

Jordan’s international police academy has trained more than 53,000 Iraqi policemen and 8,000 police from other nations since it launched in 2003. 

More from GlobalPost: Libya's rebels – then and now (PHOTOS)

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.