Shafaq News- Erbil

The first practical step toward unifying Peshmerga, the Kurdistan Region armed forces, is to start on Tuesday, with a training course supervised by the Global Coalition.

A senior source at the Ministry of Peshmerga told Shafaq News that the restructuring process will begin with a training program titled "Decision-Making Process," adding that the course represents the first “concrete phase” of integrating the Peshmerga forces formerly known as Units 70 and 80, which were later renamed the First Region and the Second Region. “The long-term objective is to fully merge the forces under the direct authority of the Ministry of Peshmerga.” 

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Under Iraq's Constitution, the Kurdistan Region has the authority to rule its own regional guard and security forces. However, the Peshmerga have long remained organizationally divided between brigades under the Ministry of Peshmerga and others aligned with the Region's two main political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the  Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). 

Efforts to reform the force accelerated after the emergence of ISIS in 2014. The reform program consists of 35 measures approved by the Kurdistan Parliament in 2018. It is being implemented through joint teams that include the Ministry of Peshmerga and advisers from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany to transform the Peshmerga into a unified professional force operating under an institutional command structure rather than party affiliation.