Wednesday morning, at the Training Centers of Atrush and Sulaymanyia, coordinated by the Kurdistan Training Coordination Center (KTCC), the closing ceremonies of theAdvanced Instructor Course, during which, for the first time, two female soldiers of the Kurdish Security Forces also obtained the qualification of instructor.
The KTCC commander, Colonel Giuseppe Levato, numerous political and military authorities of the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan and military guests of the Coalition attended the event.
The current course, which began last June 16, has so far been overtaken by 80 Peshmerga students, who have officially become instructors of the Kurdish Security Forces. From today they will join the instructors of the Coalition Forces belonging to the KTCC during the conduct of the courses, to proceed independently in the near future.
The main purpose of theAdvanced Instructor Course is to train selected personnel of the Kurdish Security Forces to become instructors, highly qualified figures capable of training colleagues in upcoming courses to counter and combat the Daesh threat. To date, in the specific courses reserved for instructors, which began two years ago, the KTCC has already qualified over 400.
Colonel Levato, during his speech, exalted the figure of the instructor, fundamental for the achievement of training self-sufficiency. He congratulated the Italian military personnel and the visitors who faced and completed a training commitment of 16 weeks, made difficult even by the high summer temperatures that were recorded. He then concluded by reiterating that today's result is the result of the excellent synergy and cooperation with which we operate within the Coalition and with the Kurdish Security Forces, urging the newly qualified to be proud of their "blue badge", the sign that from now on they will be able to officially wear with pride on the uniform.
The Kurdistan Training Coordination Center, a unit included in the "Inherent Resolve" operation, has been operating in Iraq since January 2015 with the task of training the Kurdish Security Forces. Since 13 June 2018 it has been under Italian leadership and is made up of about 300 militaries from Italy, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Slovenia, Turkey and Hungary. Organically, it is made up of a Staff that plans, organizes and coordinates the training of the Kurdish Security Forces, while the training is carried out by the Mobile Training Teams, provided by the same countries.
Currently at the four Training Centers coordinated by the KTCC in Sulaymanyia, Benaslawa, Atrush and Manila, around 2.000 Peshmerga, including a platoon of female military 30, are attending various basic, advanced and specialist courses, some of which with a train- approach the-trainers, to support the achievement of educational self-sufficiency. Since the establishment of the KTCC, in January 2015, to date, they have passed the aforementioned courses with positive results over 44.000 belonging to the Kurdish security forces, of which half were trained by the instructors of the Italian Army.
The training activity of the Coalition is aimed at increasing the operational capacity of the local Security Forces, maintaining a high level of cooperation with the political and military authorities of the region, in order to make a common effort to increase international security. The Kurdistan Training Coordination Center and the Defense personnel of the Italian Prima Parthica Operation receive daily certificates of esteem from the Peshmerga and Interior Ministries for the excellent work done.
