British military experts have trained 1,000 Christian and Yazidi members of the Peshmerga forces on the tactics of war and the use of arms, a senior Peshmerga official said.
Jamal Eminki, chief of staff of the Peshmerga forces, said: “The military experts, who were sent by the British government to the region, trained a thousand elements of Christian and Yazidis Peshmerga forces on the tactics of the war and the use of arms of destructive power, such as Dochka machine guns, Katyusha missiles, missile launchers and anti-tank weapons.”
Eminki told an Anadolu correspondent that the war will continue in the form of “street fighting”, adding: “Therefore there is a need for special military tactics, as this war is very different from fighting on a flat land, and that’s why the military training provided by military experts of the coalition countries and the British government to Peshmerga forces in the Kurdistan region is very helpful.”
The countries that fall under the umbrella of the coalition forces – who have provided weapons and ammunition to the Peshmerga after an attack by the Islamic State (ISIS) on northern Iraq in August 2014 – also provide military training to those forces.
In this context, more than 100 military advisers who were sent by the coalition forces, including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and other countries, provide military training to the Peshmerga forces in the region.
ISIS took control of Iraq’s northern capital Mosul in June last year, since then clashes between ISIS forces and local groups have continued. Currently, Peshmerga forces are fighting alongside Iraqi forces as well as militias and tribes loyal to them against ISIS, supported by an international coalition led by the US. The coalition is targeting ISIS strongholds by air.