Britain sends army trainers to Iraq to help Kurdish peshmerga fighters
Britain said on Sunday it had deployed a team of army trainers to Iraq to help Kurdish peshmerga fighters maintain and use heavy machineguns against Islamic State (IS) militants.
Britain's Ministry of Defence said the team, which local media reports said was 12-strong, had deployed to Erbil for around a week to help Kurdish fighters operate the guns which Britain gifted to them last month.
A spokeswoman stressed the army trainers were fulfilling a non-combat role. Although Britain's parliament has sanctioned the Royal Air Force taking part in air strikes on IS militants inside Iraq, Prime Minister David Cameron has repeatedly said there was no question for now of deploying ground forces.
