UK to ship Kurds heavy machine guns

The United Kingdom will ship heavy machine guns and ammunition to Kurdish forces currently fighting "Islamic State" (IS) militants in northern Iraq, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon announced.

"The Kurdish forces remain significantly less well equipped than ISIL and we are responding to help them defend themselves, protect citizens and push back ISIL advances," he declared, referring to the terrorist group using their former name, in a written statement to Parliament.

"The initial gifting package ... will consist of heavy machine guns and ammunition," he said.

The shipment, which is worth approximately 2 million euros (US $2.6 Million) followed a request made by the Iraqi government, according to Fallon, and is expected to arrive on Wednesday.

The United Kingdom, along with France, Germany, and Italy, are the European nations currently supplying arms to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. The United States has been conducting strategic airstrikes against IS for several weeks, most recently targeting IS forces near the Haditha Dam in Anbar Province last weekend.

Fallon added that his country would promote an "inclusive, sovereign and democratic Iraq that can push back on ISIL advances and restore stability and security across the country."

Islamic State terrorists have conquered broad swaths of territory across Iraq and Syria, and have brutalized religious minorities and those who do not adhere to their version of radical Islam. UK Prime Minister David Cameron vowed recently that the terrorist group would "be squeezed out of existence."

bw/sb (AFP, Reuters)