ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Peshmerga forces need more heavy weapons and training from the United States, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said Thursday, as Kurdish forces racked up victories against Islamic militants and pushed forward toward Shingal.
“The Peshmerga need to be supplied with more heavy weapons and training,” Barzani said in a meeting with a US delegation headed by senior Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.
Rohrabacher, a Republican representing California in the US Congress, praised the Peshmerga, noting they were fighting the largest organized terrorist group in the world.
He said that, despite limited capabilities, the Peshmerga had lived up to expectations in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS).
Rohrabacher, who has urged the White House to arm the Kurds in a war that has the militants on one side and a US-led coalition of more than 50 nations on the other, said that if ISIS gains dominance in the region it would pose a threat to humanity.
He said the visit of the US delegation was aimed at looking into what the Kurds need in their fight.
The meeting between Barzani and Rohrabacher took place as Peshmerga forces were rapidly advancing toward the predominantly Yezidi town of Shingal, after pushing out ISIS militants from villages around Zumar near the Syrian border.
Kurdish forces launched a three-pronged ground assault against ISIS around Shingal Wednesday morning, following a night of coalition airstrikes against the radical group.
The United States began air strikes against ISIS after the militants captured Shingal in early August, following their victory with a frenzy of murder, rape, kidnap and looting of the town’s predominantly Yezidi population.
Dozens of ISIS militants were reportedly killed in Wednesday’s fighting and their bodies left in the battlefield, while only two Peshmerga soldiers were reported wounded.
In the meeting with Rohrabacher, Barzani also offered his thanks for US assistance to the Peshmerga. “Thank you for the assistance of the United States to the Peshmerga,” he said.
