ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Germany has expanded its military training for Kurdish Peshmerga forces battling the Islamic State (ISIS) to more specialized skills, including intelligence gathering, enemy monitoring and stealth. A group of 28 Kurdish officers on Monday concluded their trip to Munster North Training Area, one of Germany’s well-known military training centers. “We have learnt how to gather intelligence, observe the enemy on the ground using special techniques and how to cover up and hide ourselves when necessary during the battles,” Kamal Faqyiani, one of the Kurdish officers who attended the 16-day course, told Rudaw. “The skills are very effective, especially in urban warfare,” said Faqyiani who called the program “successful“ and “unique” for the Peshmerga, who are more used to guerrilla warfare in the mountainous Kurdish regions of the Middle East. More than 15 German trainers provided both practical and theoretical crash courses for 10 hours a day to the first Kurdish forces who traveled to Munster, a town closely associated with military services and home to the German Army's largest garrison. Germany is among countries arming the Kurdish forces directly, providing military supplies and training. “There are seven foreign countries very active on training Peshmerga. One of them is Germany,” said Jabar Yawar, chief of staff and spokesman for the Kurdistan Region’s ministry of Peshmerga. The United States, Canada, UK, Germany and Italy all have military advisors and trainers in the Kurdistan Region. More than 90 German soldiers have been stationed in the Kurdistan Region to train Peshmerga forces in military tactics. According to Yawar the Peshmerga forces have been given various military courses by German trainers since ISIS overran huge parts of Iraq in June 2014. These including instruction on how to use and repair advanced modern weapons delivered by Germany and training on anti-tank weapons. In mid-2015 a group of Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers finished two weeks of training on anti-tank weapons in Hammelburg in southern Germany. Kurdish authorities at the time praised the effectiveness of Milan anti-tank missiles provided by Germany in their fight against ISIS. “There have been courses that took place in the Kurdistan Region and there are ones that German trainers decide to hold in their native country considering the type of the program,” Yawar explained on Monday. Faqyiani said the Kurdish officers plan to hold special training courses for the Peshmerga forces in Kurdistan and share what they have learnt during the program. Yawar said that, without learning how to be a good fighter, even having advanced weapons might not be a big help. “Attending good training program is as effective as having a good gun,” he said.
