MESOP NEWS : IRAQI KURDISTAN GETS HEAVY WEAPONS HARDWARE FROM US & FRANCE

Ninanews – 20.8.2014 – ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— The Ministry of Peshmerga in Kurdistan Regional Government said that the process of distribution of heavy weapons on the axes of fighting are going on according to the need to them, confirming that they received heavy weapons, including anti military Hummer rockets.The Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP’s website quoted the director of information of the Ministry, Brigadier Halgurd Hikmat as saying “that the province received so far weapons from the United States and France, which are of good quality, other countries have expressed willingness to supply weapons to Kurdistan.

He explained that “many of these weapons are heavy weapons, including mortar guns, mortars, Dochkats caliber 106 and 82 mm, RPG and other types,” noting that “among the weapons kind of anti-Hummer vehicles missiles which are found only in France, and asked to provide us with, and we are waiting for their arrival,”On the distribution of the weapons to the Peshmerga forces in the battlefields, Hikmat said that the process is done under the supervision of the Minister of Peshmerga and there is no intervention of any party, and is sending weapons to anywhere needs to send to.

Kurdish Peshmerga troops, backed by new wave of US air strikes, have pressed their offensive against Islamic ISIS jihadist rebels as President Barack Obama urged a joint counterterrorism effort. Obama on Monday hailed the Kurds’ recapture of a major dam outside Mosul but warned Baghdad that “the wolf is at the door” and said it must move quickly to build an inclusive government. In the north, members of minority groups including Christians, Yazidi Kurds, Kurdish Shabak and Turkmen, remain under threat of kidnap or death at the hands of the jihadists, rights groups say.