PARIS, France—French President Francios Hollande promised that his country would supply weapons and ammunitions to the Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) in a meeting with Kurdish Minister of Peshmerga at the Elysee palace in Paris on Wednesday.
“We have been promised weapons and ammunitions and when they are delivered, you will know what types of weapons they are,” said Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Peshmerga Minister Mustafa Sayid Qadir at a press conference.
“We have coalition advisors now, but we need more,” he added.
The Kurdish military delegation led by Sayid Qadir met with President Hollande and French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian to discuss the ISIS threat in Iraq and Syria and the role of the Kurdish Peshmerga in the fight against the extremist group.
Sayid Qadir said that the Peshmerga are actively leading the fight against ISIS in coordination with coalition military advisors, adding that other countries are welcome to send group troops.
“There are a number advisors of some coalition countries in the Kurdistan Region and a good number of Peshmerga are on the frontlines to counter ISIS, but any country is free to send troops,” he said.
The Peshmerga minister told Rudaw correspondent in Paris that he was seeking advanced weapons “that could match and destroy ISIS’s guns,”
ISIS seized American-supplied advanced weapons, including heavy artillery, armored vehicles and tanks from several Iraqi army divisions after it overran the city of Mosul last summer.
Supported by coalition air strikes and a limited number of German anti-tank missiles the Kurdish forces have managed to push back ISIS from their territories in recent months, but they say that more weapons are needed to defeat the group.
