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Arbil, 3 August (AKI) - Enrolment has begun
in Iraqi Kudistan for the first Kurdish Peshmerga
fighters to join Iraq's national army.
The recruitment represents the completion of the
first phase to create a special brigade within the
fourth division of the Iraqi army. Peshmerga is the
term used by Kurds to refer to freedom fighters, and
literally means "those who face death".
The agreements reached in the last few months will
see some 32,000 former guerrillas join the ranks of
Iraq's new armed forces, said Jaafar Mustafa, a
member of the Peshmerga leadership, but "so far only
one brigade has been set up", whose members come
from the Sulaymaniya area.
Mustafa also pointed out that "the accords also
establish the creation of a special Peshmerga
brigade in the Karmiyan region near the disputed
northern city of Kirkuk. The detachment is already
ready, but we are waiting for the defence ministry
to issue an official constitutional decree," he
said.
The Peshmerga forces of Kurdistan were formed when
the Kurdish independence movement began in the early
1920s and are often affiliated to prominent figures
or political parties.
The Peshmerga fought alongside US troops in northern
Iraq during the 2003 Iraq war and since then have
taken on a security role in the Kurdish areas of
northern Iraq. There are estimated to be between
80,000 and 100,000 Peshmerga fighters in the north
of the country.
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