(9 Mar 2016) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Irbil - 9 March 2016
1. Various of coalition soldiers training Kurdish peshmerga to use the M16 rifle
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Colonel Bern Prill, Commander, Kurdistan Training Coordination Centre:
“Let’s say it’s an infantry basic course to train the peshmerga on the individual skills a soldier has to know on the battlefield, starting with weapon handling, marksmanship, zeroing, care under fire, and all the stuff that he really needs to survive along the frontline.”
3. Various of live fire exercise
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Colonel Bern Prill, Commander (German Army) Kurdistan Training Coordination Centre:
“They are really eager to learn, highly motivated, we started on the 15th (of January) as I mentioned before and all the peshmerga we have seen so far, very good guys, and really motivated to learn because they know that they need these skills to survive along the frontline.”
5. Various of training exercise
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Colonel Bern Prill, Commander, Kurdistan Training Coordination Centre:
“The economic situation in Kurdistan is a challenge not only for the population in Kurdistan but a challenge for the peshmerga itself when it comes to food, transportation and all these things. It hampers the training sometimes a little bit, but not every day.”
7. Various of training
8. SOUNDBITE (Kurdish) Hawer Mohammed, peshmerga soldier:
“The most important thing for me has been the counter-IED (improvised explosive device) training because I have lost three of my buddies to IEDs. And I am giving a lot of care and focus to this matter and I’m very excited to learn how to defuse them so I can prevent injuries among civilians and protect my colleagues. And as I said I have lost three friends and as long as I’m alive I will not forget them.”
9. Various of peshmerga
10. Various of ground exercise
11. Various of peshmerga learning how to disassemble rifle ++CLIENTS NOTE: WHISPERED EXPLETIVE++
12. M16 rifles
13. Various of training on anti-tank weapon
14. Various of peshmerga practising the assembling of an M16 rifle
15. Various of peshmerga
STORYLINE:
Two battalions of Kurdish peshmerga are undertaking a nine-week basic infantry course on a coalition base outside Irbil in northern Iraq.
The two peshmerga battalions numbering about 1200 men are trained by coalition soldiers from Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Hungary.
The trainees receive western equipment including anti-tank weapons and American M16 rifles.
The peshmerga militia of the Kurdistan Regional Government have been the West’s most effective ally on the ground in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Throughout their history, the peshmerga have been effective guerrilla warriors but they have little experience of conventional ground warfare, and most of their equipment consists of light weapons, mostly Soviet-type rifles.
Seven thousand and 500 peshmerga soldiers have already been trained at the Kurdistan Training Coordination Centre (KTCC) which is led by a German Colonel.
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