[RUDAW.NET] The Ministry of Peshmerga in the Kurdistan region recently ended its recruitment campaign in Erbil, Duhok, and Suleimani provinces.The ministry is planning to form two Peshmerga brigades consisting of 4,400 members. The recruitment campaign, which lasted for a month, recruited 3,500 only.
On the last day of the campaign, Rebin Abdulla, a graduate student, came to register his name in order to become a peshmerga. "I tried several times to get employed, but my attempts failed," said Abdulla.
"I was jobless and I did not have other options. I could either illegally go abroad or become a Peshmerga. Being a Peshmerga is a sacred occupation but I prefer to work in the field of my specialty," said Abdulla.
"I would rather sacrifice my blood to my country than abandon it and depart to Europe, what the youth does is wrong, they better serve Kurdistan," Mohammed Farouq, a Peshmerga volunteer told Rudaw.
The Peshmerga ministry consists of 16 brigades, each brigade composes of 3200 Peshmerga. The Peshmerga ministry decided to form three more brigades for volunteer Peshmerga, only two have been formed so far.
"These two brigades will alleviate the Peshmerga shortcomings, but they cannot be considered as a main backup force for a long-period in major battles against the enemy," said Bapir Kamala, member of the Kurdistan Parliament's Peshmerga committee to Rudaw. "I call upon the government to expedite preparing these two brigades and form the third brigade as well," he continued.
"The volunteer brigades are going to be trained directly by the United States of America (US), which will be sending experts for that purpose," said Anwar Haji Osman, the deputy minister of the Peshmerga.