Official: US to provide military aid worth $200 million to Peshmerga forces

The United States will provide military aid worth $200 million to the Peshmerga forces in 2016, a senior Iraqi official revealed.

Jabbar Yawar, the secretary general of the ministry responsible for Kurdish Peshmerga forces, said in remarks to Anadolu news agency that the new aid will reach the region shortly coming from Kuwait.

General Yawar said “the flow of arms from some countries to Kurdistan in northern Iraq continues in order to fight the Islamic State terrorist group”. He added that “the region does not buy or import weapons directly, without the approval of the central government in Baghdad”.

“All the weapons they received came in the framework of the international coalition forces aid,” he said.

“The US Congress plan for 2015 included the allocation of $800 million as weapons aid to the international coalition forces fighting terrorism,” said Yawar. He added that the Peshmerga ground forces are “fighting with the international coalition against the Islamic State”.