"The sets will include individual soldier equipment, including helmets, body armor, first aid kits, rifles and machine guns. Also included are vehicles to move troops, supplies and equipment," Joseph Pennington, US consul general to Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan's capital city, told Al-Monitor.
He said the United States, in coordination with the international coalition fighting IS, has so far provided over $180 million worth of equipment and ammunition to the Kurdish Ministry of Peshmerga.
There have been increasing calls in Kurdistan by figures across the political spectrum to reform the structure and training of the Kurdish peshmerga to improve their performance on the battlefield.
Many fear lack of deep reforms in the peshmerga ranks will adversely affect the development of a civic and democratic political structure in Iraqi Kurdistan. Each of the two dominant Kurdish parties — the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) — still exert control over large portions of the peshmerga. The KDP is headed by the Iraqi Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani, while PUK leader Jalal Talabani was until last year Iraq's president.
The structure of the peshmerga is made up of 16 joint brigades controlled and directed by the Ministry of Peshmerga. In addition, there are Division 70 and Division 80 units, the former affiliated with the PUK and the latter with the KDP. There are also two mechanized units that possess heavy weaponry. There are no exact figures on the number of the peshmerga, but estimates point to upward of 100,000 troops and some to as many as almost 190,000.
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