Security

Coalition will continue to support and assist Peshmerga in the future: Brigadier-General

"It is our mission to advise and enable all the security forces, Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in their endeavor to defeat ISIS."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2021/11/11 15:49

Brigadier General Nick Ducich, Director of the Military Advisory Group in Iraq for Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve. (Photo: Kurdistan 24).

Kurdistan Peshmerga US-led Coalition

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Brigadier General Nick Ducich, Director of the Military Advisory Group in Iraq for the United States-led coalition, told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday that the coalition will continue to assist Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the future.

Wednesday is distribution day! The @KRG_MOPE M4 Warehouse distributed many vehicles to Regional Guard Brigades this morning, increasing the mobility and operational reach of the #Peshmerga! #DefeatDaesh pic.twitter.com/8PvsdyHkDA
— Deputy Director MAG-North Colonel Todd Burroughs (@DepDirMAGN) November 10, 2021

“It is our mission to advise and enable all the security forces, Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in their endeavor to defeat ISIS,” Brigadier General Ducich said during the distribution of military vehicles to the Ministry of Peshmerga M4 Warehouse in Erbil Airport.

The vehicles are for the Peshmerga’s Regional Guard Brigades, which are independent units under the ministry’s command that are not affiliated with the Kurdistan Region’s two ruling parties.

The vehicles provided to the Peshmerga forces were funded through the US Department of Defense-funded Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund (CTEF) program.

Also on Tuesday, the Kurdistan Peshmerga forces received two dozen armored vehicles from the coalition.

Brigadier General Ducich said that the coalition support for the Peshmerga has an ongoing objective, to defeat ISIS and sustain the Peshmerga’s capabilities.

Even though ISIS is trying to show it’s still relevant by stepping up its attacks against Peshmerga forces, Ducich maintains that the “efforts of the security forces are having a desired effect on reducing the Daesh (ISIS) effectiveness” to the point of insignificance.

US Col. Todd Burroughs, Deputy Director of the US-led coalition's Military Advisor Group North, told Kurdistan 24 on Wednesday that the coalition continues to work diligently with the Peshmerga to unify all of those Kurdish forces under one command.

The Netherlands, the US, the UK, and Germany have jointly established the Multinational Advisory Group, which is separate from the coalition. The Group seeks to remove local politics from the Peshmerga forces’ chain of command.

According to a recent Pentagon Watchdog report, the Ministry of Peshmerga continues to transfer troops from the Peshmerga Unit 70 and 80 brigades, which are respectively controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), to the non-partisan Regional Guard Brigades.

According to coalition data, at least 5,500 Peshmerga troops were transferred from the KDP’s Unit 70. There are also plans to transfer troops from the PUK’s Unit 80.

“And as you know, that's a very complicated process and it takes time,” Col. Burroughs told Kurdistan 24. However, he believes that so long as they continue to support the Ministry of Peshmerga in these efforts that they will “make more progress on unification.”

He added that the coalition is committed to helping its “Peshmerga partners to continue to defeat ISIS” and that the coalition will work with the Peshmerga to determine what kind of military equipment they will need from the coalition in the future.

Editing by Paul Iddon.