August 26, 2014. Copyright 2014, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Countries pledge weapons to Kurdish fighters

LONDON, August 26, Graphic News:  Kurdish security forces, ill-equipped and out-gunned in their fight against Islamic State jihadists (ISIS) in northern Iraq, have received the first supplies of light weapons from France and the United States. And there’s more on the way, with Germany, Britain, Italy and Albania announcing arms supplies to Peshmerga forces, and Canada offering logistical support.

When ISIS invaded northern Iraq in June they seized a huge trove of American weaponry from the Iraqi army, which retreated en masse. ISIS -- now armed with U.S. M-1 Abrams tanks, Humvees and armoured vehicles -- rampaged across Iraq and pushed into once-secure Kurdish territory. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters were unable to match this firepower.

Although French and U.S. military advisers in Irbil are now training Peshmerga to use NATO weapons, including Browning .50-calibre machine guns, there are technical problems. “The Kurdish Peshmerga have always fought using weapons of Soviet manufacture,” says Gianandrea Gaiani, editor of Italy’s Analisi Difesa. The problem is that NATO standards are different from those of the former Soviet bloc -- for instance, the Browning uses a standard NATO 12.7×99mm cartridge while the Russian DShK machine gun uses a 12.7x108mm cartridge. Despite the similar bullet diameters (12.7mm), the difference in the length of the cartridge case (99mm to 108mm) prevents interchangeability.

The Albanian government, however, has soviet-era weaponry and is sending 22 million rounds of ammunition, 15,000 grenades and 32,000 mortar bombs direct to Irbil.

Italian Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti has announced that Rome will supply the Kurds with light automatic weapons and ammunition, as well as weapons from the former Soviet Union which were seized during the Balkan wars in the 1990s.

These weapons have been kept in storage in caves on Italy’s Santo Stefano island -- a former U.S. nuclear submarine base -- since 1994, when British and Italian navy ships intercepted the freighter Jadran Express as it sailed off the coast of Italy. The ship was sent by a shadowy syndicate of Russian and Ukrainian mafia, former KGB agents and politicians to supply arms to Serb fighters during the Balkan conflict.

The Jadran haul included 133 shipping containers crammed with 30,000 Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifles and 32 million rounds of small arms ammunition, 400 AT-4 Spigot wire-guided anti-tank missiles and 50 launchers, 5,000 Katyusha rockets, 400 RPG-7 launchers and 11,000 anti-tank/anti-personnel grenades.

Gaiani says that Pershmerga armed with AT-4s could destroy ISIS armour up to two kilometres away, while the shoulder-fired RPG-7 needs to be fired from much nearer, as close as 80 metres for an effective hit. However, the RPG has become the weapon of choice used by urban fighters in Iraq. A review by the Operation Iraqi Freedom Study Group found that some 50 percent of the 3,528 U.S. soldiers killed in action were the result of RPG-7 fire.

Defence minister Pinotti said that delivery of over 1,000 tonnes of weapons by military transport aircraft would be fast but expensive, while sending by container ship to the United Arab Emirates and then to Kurdistan by C-130 Hercules would be much cheaper, but would require several weeks.
/ENDS