The U.S.and Allies are Training Kurds in the Use of Sophisticated Weaponry

The U.S. military and its allies have launched an urgent effort to train Kurdish forces to use sophisticated weapons that the West is expected to supply in the coming months for a stepped up counteroffensive against the extremist group Islamic State.

For the past month, American, British and French advisers have been training fighters from the semiautonomous Kurdistan region in battlefield techniques at military bases across northern Iraq.

Kurdish refugees from Syria who fled across the 

border into Turkey amid fierce fighting with 

Islamic State militants 

Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The conflict with Islamic State insurgents has laid bare the weaknesses of the forces known as Peshmerga, who not only lack military hardware but also have a strategic deficiency. Steeped in guerrilla warfare, the forces have little experience defending long front lines or fighting in urban environments, Kurdish officials said.

One goal of the broader U.S.-led training program is to transform the Peshmerga from an irregular force into a more organized one that can more effectively fight Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

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"Training is welcome but we need it to expand," said Sadi Ahmed Pire, politburo member of the Kurdistan Union Party. "The problem is that we have a heritage as a guerrilla force, but we need to learn how to control cities and to fight ISIS."

The narrowly tailored training program, detailed in interviews with The Wall Street Journal, is an example of how the U.S.-led alliance against Islamic State insurgents is already at work on the ground. It involves dozens of advisers from a growing number of Western allies.

It is the cornerstone of a campaign to train Kurdish forces expected to serve as the international coalition's front-line proxy force so the U.S. doesn't have to send in American ground forces to confront Islamic State fighters.

The training is taking place at several facilities close to Erbil, capital of Kurdistan, according to several senior Kurdish officials, Peshmerga commanders and Western advisers.

In at least one training program, French advisers are teaching Kurdish fighters how to effectively use heavy machine guns. American advisers are coordinating the overall effort, Western officials said.

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