British Military Advisers Sent To N. Iraq To Train Anti-ISIS Kurdish Fighters

British military advisers sent to N. Iraq to train anti-ISIS Kurdish fighters (RT, Oct 12, 2014):

“small specialist team” of British soldiers is in northern Iraq training Kurdish fighters battling so-called Islamic State (IS) militants, the Ministry of Defense has said.

The dozen-man team from the Yorkshire Regiment was dispatched to the Kurdish capital of Erbil and is training Peshmerga forces in the use of heavy machine guns supplied to them by the UK last month, UK media report. The “non-combat army trainers” will remain in the area, where Kurdish fighters are resisting Islamic State (also known as ISIS, or ISIL) for around a week.

The deployment was given the green light by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, an MoD spokeswoman confirmed. The mission is viewed as part and parcel of the UK’s broader battle against IS.

In September, the UK announced it was supplying 40 heavy machine guns and nearly half a million rounds of ammunition to “give the Kurdish Peshmerga forces additional firepower in order to help them defend the front line, protect civilians and push back ISIL advances.”

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