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New units step toward reforming Kurdish peshmerga

Some Kurdish officials are hopeful that new peshmerga brigades will be immune to politicization.
Kurdish peshmerga forces take part in a training session at a training camp on the outskirts of Dohuk province April 7, 2015. The coalition forces were training Kurdish peshmerga soldiers on how to fight in street battles.  REUTERS/Ari Jalal   - RTR4WE6F
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ERBIL, Iraq — Dildar Namiq, 24, is eagerly running up and down a flight of stairs in a two-story office, trying to complete paperwork to join Iraqi Kurdistan's armed forces, known as the peshmerga. He is one of the more than 600 volunteers who have applied in the last 12 days in this registration center to join three brigades that will be formed soon.

"I'm a taxi driver right now and I want to do something better in my life," Namiq said. He is wearing traditional baggy Kurdish pants and a white shirt. "I want to go to the front lines and fight Daesh," he added, referring to the Islamic State (IS) group by its Arabic acronym.

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