To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the direct military aid his Department provided to Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.
Answered on
6 November 2014
To date in 2014, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has undertaken the following military assistance to units in Iraq: airstrikes, and accompanying surveillance, which have been critical to supporting the Iraqi security forces, including Kurdish Peshmerga; donated military equipment (such as rations and sleeping bags); and gifted 40 heavy machine guns and almost half a million rounds of ammunition. In addition, the UK has delivered weapons and ammunition from other coalition countries to Northern Iraq. Finally, UK personnel have been conducting training on the UK-gifted heavy machine guns near Erbil. Earlier in the year counter-improvised explosive device training was conducted by a private company, sponsored by three UK Government Departments, including the MOD.
No assistance has been given to Syrian Kurdish forces.