BNESLAWA, Kurdish Region – Foreign assistance to Kurdish Peshmerga forces has been ramped up with a new battalion-level training course kicking off outside Erbil. For the first time, military instructors from the international coalition against Islamic State will train an entire battalion, aiming to increase the Peshmerga's tactical effectiveness in maneuvering larger groups of soldiers. At a ceremony at Zerevani Camp in Bneslawa outside of Erbil on Tuesday, Minister of Peshmerga Affairs Mustafa Sayid Qadir welcomed the new training in a speech to two companies of soldiers and their foreign trainers. “We will show you tactics, techniques and procedures simultaneously on the platoon, company and battalion level,” German Colonel Jochen Schneider told the Peshmerga standing to attention on the camp's parade ground. Instructors from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands will lead the four-week training program. Schneider heads the Kurdistan Training Coordination Center (KTCC) which brings together the efforts of the British, Dutch, German and Italian coalition partners. After holding a moment of silence for the Peshmerga who have been killed in the fight against the Islamic State, the delegation toured the new training grounds, where Qadir and Schneider inspected freshly dug trenches. More than 600 Peshmerga are involved in the new training. In addition to the two companies and battalion staff receiving training at Bneslawa, two more companies will train at the Duhok Infantry Training Center at Atrosh. The course is the largest training effort yet by the international coalition in the Kurdistan region. Last month, the KTCC offered a four-week program focused on basic training at the platoon level. The 424 Peshmerga who completed the course were instructed in shooting, urban warfare, identifying improvised explosives device, battlefield first aid and other infantry skills. The training offered by the KTCC is tailored in response to Ministry of Peshmerga requests, according to Schneider. “We don't want to do it like we do in NATO,” he said, referring to the alliance of the major Western military powers known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “My idea is to improve their way.” Schneider, who was previously the last German commander in Kunduz Afghanistan, told Rudaw: “At the end, we would like to have a final exercise to show them and us if we have been successful. Then we will come up with a new course.”
