The New Peshmerga Military
A Kurdish Army Peshmerga "Special Forces" Soldier places his AKM assault rifle on the ground to pose for a photograph at a river stream located in the countryside near Dohuk.Peshmerga forces fought side by side with American troops in the 2003 Iraq War in Iraqi Kurdistan. Since that time the Peshmerga have assumed full responsibility for the security of the Kurdish areas of Northern Iraq.
In early 2005 it was speculated by Newsweek magazine that Peshmerga forces could be trained by the US to take on Sunni rebels in Iraq.
In late 2004, when Arab Iraqi Police and ING (Iraqi National Guard) units in the city of Mosul collapsed in the face of an insurgent uprising, Kurdish Peshmerga battalions, who had recently been converted into ING forces, led the counter-attack alongside US military units. To this day, there are a number of Kurdish battalions of former Peshmerga in the Iraqi Army serving in Northern Iraq.
It is estimated that as of January, 2005 there were 80,000 Peshmerga fighters in Iraqi Kurdistan. A February 2005 The New York Times article mentioned that Massoud Barzani wants to retain the Peshmerga forces. The article estimates their number to be 100,000. A recent CBS News reports places their number at 175,000.
The peshmergas are an active partner in the American-led coalition in Iraq. Many peshmerga are fluent in Arabic, in contrast to foreign coalition troops, and they therefore play an important role in the Sunni triangle of Central Iraq. On the strategic level the peshmergas are ready to fight a guerrilla war in case of a Turkish or an Iranian invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Current Equipment of the Peshmerga
Unlike the other militias, the Peshmerga were not prohibited by the transitional government, the Kurdish army has been formed out of the Peshmerga. They are usually armed with AK-47s and AK-74s, RPKs (light Soviet machine guns) and DShKs (heavy Soviet machine guns). During the American-led invasion the Peshmerga captured the rest of the arms of the Iraqi forces, consisting of more than 2000 armored vehicles (some hundred of them PT-76s and a smaller number of T-55s) and an unknown number of artillery guns.
Individual Weapons
Assault Rifle
AK-47 (Assault Rifle - 7.62 x 39 mm)
AK-74 (Assault Rifle - 5.45 x 39 mm)
Heckler & Koch G3 (Assault Rifle - 7.62 × 51 mm)
Submachine Gun
Heckler & Koch MP5 (Submachine - 9 × 19 mm)
Machine Gun
RPK (LMG - 7.62 x 39 mm)
RPK-74 (LMG - 5.45 x 39 mm)
PKM (GPMG - 7.62 x 54 mmR)
DShK (Heavy Machine Gun - 12.7 x 107 mm)
Sniper Rifle
SVD Dragunov (Sniper Rifle - 7.62 × 54 mmR)
M-40A1 (Sniper Rifle - 7.62 × 51 mm)
Anti-Tank Explosive
RPG-7 (rocket-propelled grenade launcher - 40 mm)
Man-Portable Air-Defence System
SA-7 Grail
Vehicles
Type-69 Q-M with plating armor reinforcement
A curious example of the so called Enigma, an Iraqi Command vehicle widely reinforced with appliqué armor, 1991
Main Battle Tank
T-54/T-55
Type 59
Type 69
Infantry Fighting Vehicle
PT-76
BMP-1 (73mm main gun, 7.62x54 coax, AT-5 ATGM, 8 passengers)
BMP-2 (30mm autocannon main gun, 7.62x54 coax, AT-5 ATGM, 7 passengers)
Armoured Personal Carrier
MT-LB (7.62x54 PKT main gun, 10 passengers)
BTR-60 (14.5x115 main gun, 7.62x54 coax, 12 passengers)
Self-Propelled Artillery
122mm 2S1 M-1974 (122mm, maximum range with regular shell; 15.3 km, rocket assisted; 21.9 km)
Towed Artillery
105mm M-56
122mm D-30 (122mm, maximum range with regular shell; 15.4 km, rocket assisted; 21.9 km )
122mm M-30
152mm D-1
Mortar
81mm M-29
60mm M-224
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshmerga#The...hmerga_Military