PHOTOS: Hundreds of Kurdish Peshmerga complete training mission in Erbil

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A total of 457 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on Tuesday completed months of military training which US-led coalition advisers had supervised.

Many local officials, including the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed, attended the graduation ceremony.

The autonomous Kurdish region has around 250,000 Peshmerga troops serving in its military. Since 2014, the Kurdish forces have played a crucial role in containing and defeating the so-called Islamic State.

Since the Islamic State emerged in 2014, around 2,000 Peshmerga fighters have fallen while fighting the terrorist group, and over 10,000 more have been injured, according to the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Ministry.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany