“Consul General [Robert] Palladino presented the #Erbil Asayish Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit with $500,000 worth of security equipment today in a ceremony at the Erbil Asayish Headquarters,” US consulate in Erbil said in a statement.
“Following a pause in anti-terrorism assistance operations due to #COVID19, the #United_States has resumed security assistance operations with programs valued at over $10 million planned over the next two years. The United States is committed to continue supporting the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and to the enduring defeat of ISIS,” it added, referring to the Islamic State.
The US-led global coalition against ISIS has supported Kurdish Peshmerga forces through funding them and providing military equipment and training since 2014 when the group held swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq and advanced to near Erbil.
Washington still pays the salaries of thousands of Peshmerga fighters.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams in the Kurdistan Region, especially in the capital city of Erbil, have supported Peshmerga forces during military operations aimed to retake areas from ISIS.
Kurdistan Region’s borders with Iraq have been littered with landmines due to ISIS war, and its areas which border Iran are also contaminated due to Iraq-Iran war in the 1980s.
Dozens of people are maimed or killed across the Kurdistan Region by explosives each year.
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