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U.S., allies training Kurds on using sophisticated weaponry

The U.S. military and its allies have launched an urgent effort to train Kurdish forces to use sophisticated weapons that the West is expected to supply in the coming months for a stepped up counteroffensive against the extremist group Islamic State. For the past month, American, British and French advisers have been training fighters from […]

Joe Parkinson and Dion Nissenbaum write for the Wall Street Journal:

The U.S. military and its allies have launched an urgent effort to train Kurdish forces to use sophisticated weapons that the West is expected to supply in the coming months for a stepped up counteroffensive against the extremist group Islamic State. For the past month, American, British and French advisers have been training fighters from the semiautonomous Kurdistan region in battlefield techniques at military bases across northern Iraq. The conflict with Islamic State insurgents has laid bare the weaknesses of the forces known as Peshmerga, who not only lack military hardware but also have a strategic deficiency. Steeped in guerrilla warfare, the forces have little experience defending long front lines or fighting in urban environments, Kurdish officials said.