Peshmerga requests UK help against 'IS chemical weapons'

The Peshmerga have written to UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon requesting the urgent delivery of equipment to protect the Iraqi Kurdish forces from chemical weapons attacks ahead of a planned assault on the Islamic State-held city of Mosul. 

The Guardian reported on Tuesday that a letter was presented to Fallon by the Kurdistan Iraq region’s representative to the UK Karwan Jamal Tahir who claimed that the Peshmerga had already faced at least 19 chemical attacks and lacked the proper equipment to combat such a threat. 

To date, Kurdish forces have been forced to resort to primitive protection such as towels and water tanks when confronted with mustard and chlorine agents that the CIA says IS has used in both Syria and Iraq.

“We don’t have too many masks and no body suits at all to protect from such attacks,”  Rebin Rojbayani, a Peshmerga commander on the Makhmour-Gwer front told the Kurdistan-Iraq based news agency Rudaw in April.

“At the end of the day we have only water and bleach to wash the injuries.”

On Tuesday Rudaw reported that Kurdish President Masoud Barzani met with a UK delegation that included both Dr. Christian Turner, the UK’s director general for the Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign Office, and Frank Baker, the UK’s ambassador to Iraq. 

Following the meeting Barzani’s office released a statement emphasising the importance of a post-IS plan for Mosul. A plethora of of foreign states have been quick to offer military assistance to Iraqi forces preparing to retake Mosul.

However concern is growing over whether such offers of military assistance have been accompanied by long-term planning concerning the future of Mosul and its inhabitants when the city is retaken. The UN has warned that attacks on Mosul could create a humanitarian catastrophe.

The UK has to date provided both medical aid totalling $1 million and military aid to the Peshmerga. The latest military donation to the Kurdish Iraqi force was made in June when $1.78 million worth of ammunition was sent to the Peshmerga to equip 40 heavy machine guns previously sent from the British government to Iraq.

Peshmerga forces are currently positioned 10km from Mosul, located in Iraq’s north-western Ninevah province. They are acutely aware of the dangers of chemical attacks. Events such as Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons in Halabja in March 1988 — when as many as 5,000 people, mainly women and children were killed in one day —remain strong in the Kurdish collective conscience. 

Amid preparations for a decisive offensive on Mosul, last week the US announced that it was sending a further 600 troops to the country to provide logistical support to Iraqi forces. Hundreds of US military advisors are already stationed on Iraqi soil helping local forces utilise the Qayyara airbase asa logistical hub from which to direct operations in Mosul.