ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Kurdish Ministry of Peshmerga has put a number of its soldiers through training at home and abroad to learn technics and method of protection against chemical weapons as the Peshmerga suffered several such attacks from ISIS in the last two years.
Of the 100 Peshmerga soldiers selected for this unit 76 are being trained in Sulaimani in Kurdistan Region and the rest in Germany.
“We are 15 Peshmerga and officers from the Peshmerga ministry chemical attack protection department that was launched recently.” Maj. Islam Chali, head of the department said.
Maj. Chali and his men are now in Germany’s Sonthofen where they are being trained by the German military.
The Peshmerga are trained at Ordensburg Sonthofen, a military compound built in 1934.
“We are receiving training courses in Germany’s popular training academy,” Chali added.
Their training goes from sunrise to 5pm every day for two weeks.
In fighting ISIS along a frontline of several hundred miles Kurdish forces have come under chemical attack in the past two years.
Around 14 Peshmerga suffered severe wound and burns when they were attacked with chemical laden bombs last May, said Sirwan Barzani, Commander of the Gwer-Makhmour front.
Germany has been one of the main backers of the Kurdish Peshmerga since the start of the ISIS war in 2014, providing the effective armor-piercing Milan missiles, assault rifles and training near Erbil.
Some 10,000 Peshmerga soldiers are reported to have been trained by Germany.
