Prague, Aug 27 (CTK) – The Czech military will be training engineers from the Kurdish Peshmergas (military forces) in order to help them fight Islamic State (IS), daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes on Saturday.
The training is being prepared at the 15th engineering regiment in Bechyne, south Bohemia, MfD writes.
There will be roughly ten Kurdish engineers who will be prepared by Czech instructors for the fight against improvised detonating devices, it adds.
It may be a delicate affair. Although the Kurdish units are supported by the USA, another NATO member, Turkey, may be afraid of Kurds’ too big success, MfD warns.
It may shore up Kurdish separatists combated by the Turkish army in southeastern Turkey, it adds.
However, a security analyst of the University of Defence, Lukas Dycka, does not see any problem in this, MfD writes.
“There is a large difference between the Kurds living in Iraq, Syria and Turkey,” Dycka has told the paper.
“These are three different groups that often do not have good bilateral relations,” he added.
“We support the Iraqi ones. Compared with their own and Syrian Kurds, Turkey has quite a good relationship with them,” Dycka said.
“As a result, our support is targeted deliberately, so that our relation with Turkey does not suffer,” he added.
In addition, the Czech military has been involved in specialist courses, especially for chemical warfare and engineers, of the armed forces in Jordan, MfD writes.
The air force base in Pardubice, east Bohemia, is ready to train the second group of Iraqi helicopter pilots, it adds.
In July, 31 Iraqis ended the one-year course, MfD writes.
“The Iraqi authorities have expressed great satisfaction with the high quality of the training,” Roman Planicka, director of the organising state-run LOEM Praha company, has said.
“We are negotiating the training of another group of helicopter pilots and we presume that the relevant agreement will be signed next year,” he added.
In August, a Czech 30-member air training team started working at the Balad air base north of Baghdad that teaches the Iraqi air force personnel.
“It is training them with the L-159 aircraft that was delivered from the Czech Republic to the Iraqi military,” Czech chief of staff Josef Becvar said.
“It is quite a strong signal of how the Czech Republic reacts to the situation in the region,” he added.
“We are largely focusing on upgrading the military of the countries in the region because the problem must be solved primarily by them,” Bevar said.
Becvar stressed that this year and last year, the Czech Republic had delivered a large quantity of ammunition to the Iraqi armed forces and the Kurds fighting IS.
At present, Czechs are also schooling helicopter crews and ground personnel in Afghanistan, MfD writes.
In Mali, four Czech instructors are in charge of basic training of the ground personnel, it adds.
“After the chaotic events there, the local military has all but disintegrated and it is being rebuilt,” Becvar said.
“The instructions are in the terrain in the southern part of the country where they are training the Malian troops in Koulikoro,” he added.
