Kurdistan Peshmerga forces receive 98 vehicles through US Counter-ISIS program
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Kurdistan Region’s Ministry of Peshmerga on Thursday received 98 vehicles through the US Department of Defense (DoD)-funded Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund (CTEF) program.
The Kurdistan Region’s Peshmerga Forces receive 98 vehicles through the @DeptofDefense–funded Counter-ISIS Train and Equip Fund (CTEF) program.
— Kurdistan 24 English (@K24English) January 7, 2021
📸Kurdistan 24 pic.twitter.com/kSSPJL6f7V
Col. David Williams, the Director of the Kurdistan Coordination Center (KCC), told Kurdistan 24 that they would issue $12.5 million worth of vehicles.
Initially, the plan was to deliver 93 vehicles to the Peshmerga forces, including 11 armored Humvees, 12 ambulances, 20 armored vehicles, and 50 normal trucks. However, on Thursday, five extra ambulances were added to the batch of equipment delivered to the Kurdish forces.
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In comments made to Kurdistan 24 during the handover of the equipment, Col. Williams noted that around $400 million worth of equipment was given to the Iraqi and Kurdish security forces through the CTEF program.
He added that the majority of the support goes to the Iraqi Security Forces. “In 2020, $375 million went to Iraqi security forces, and the Kurds received $25 million.”
“We are going to see in the next 10 to 18 months is the divestment of up to 12 brigades worth of equipment to the Ministry of Peshmerga’s Regional Guard Brigades,” the military official said. “It’s about $166 million worth of equipment that will be issued out.”
“The vehicles are just one portion of the equipment that we provide,” Col. Williams continued. “We do provide ammunitions, weapons, like I said before, food and fuel to help support the Peshmerga. We do the same thing with the Iraqi security forces as well.”
Col. Williams underlined that the necessary equipment is given to Iraqi and Kurdish forces to help their offensive and defensive operation capabilities in the final defeat of the so-called Islamic State.
“They’re [ISIS] still out there in some areas, everyone knows that. We’re seeking the final defeat of ISIS, we’re looking to root them out. It’s what these vehicles help do.”
According to Williams, before the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of training was given to Peshmerga forces, but due to the pandemic, most of the training was halted.
“There’s still a lot of training that goes on with special forces,” he explained. “But on a conventional level with Regional Guard Brigades, most of our training now has been elevated to the operational level advising within the Ministry of Peshmerga, working with some of the sector commands and some of the brigades, so that’s where we’re really advising now versus the tactical level training that we used to do.”
“But still there’s a lot of bilateral efforts, whether it’s my own country’s efforts through the embassy or the United Kingdom’s, or German, or Dutch, or Italian, the various countries do have bilateral training. The French have bilateral training events going on still with the Iraqi Peshmerga forces and other security forces.”
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany