IRAQ

BRITAIN is set to provide anti-tank weapons, night vision googles, radar and body armour to Kurdish forces in northern Iraq who are battling Islamic State jihadists.

The region’s fighters say they will ask the UK for specific equipment after Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said a request for weapons and other equipment would be ‘considered favourably’.

An emergency meeting of EU ministers has condemned the ‘atrocities and abuses’ against religious minorities – such as the Yazidis – and backed the arming of Kurdish forces.

RAF Chinooks sent by Britain to the region are already ferrying weapons supplied by other countries, including France, to Kurds in the city of Irbil. It is here where British and US Special Forces are helping plan an offensive against the IS militants.

Map of Iraq and surrounding areas highlighting IS advances and aid-drop points.

They are also providing training in the use of the newly supplied weapons, including ‘Milan’ anti-tank missiles and Belgian-made machine guns.

Kurdish fighters would like the UK to provide Javelin anti-tank missiles, mortars, heavy-calibre machine guns and sniper rifles as well as body armour, infrared night vision googles and helmets. They may also be given a portable radar called MSTAR used to locate incoming fire and enemy positions.

Britain had previously said it would only ferry weapons to the Kurds, not supply them. The change of stance could risk drawing the UK back into Iraq’s conflict.

The weapons supply and training are in addition to the RAF Tornados, Hercules transport planes, and other support vehicles and troops already in the region.

The chancellor of the Kurdish region’s security council, Masrour Barzani, said he welcomed the ‘British decision to supply us with the effective weapons that we’ve been asking for’.

The British Government insists that tackling the dire humanitarian situation in Iraq remains the UK’s top priority.

A Downing Street spokesman, said: ‘Ensuring that Kurdish forces are able to counter IS advances is also vital. We have made clear that we will consider any requests from the Iraq or Kurdistan Regional Government favourably.’

No 10 highlighted the plight of the Dahuk region in northern Iraq where 450,000 displaced people are taking shelter – a 50 per cent increase in the area’s population. Farhad Atushi, the governor of Dahuk, said the US and UK are ‘politically and ethically responsible for helping Iraq’.

Mr Atushi has also warned of the threat of ‘genocide’, adding: ‘We have hundreds of thousands (of refugees). We’re going to face an international humanitarian catastrophe because many of those are children who are going to die.’

Former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown also welcomed the Government’s decision as he warned that conflicts in Iraq and Syria would result in redrawing Middle Eastern borders.

He said the Kurds could act as a ‘northern bulwark’ against the advancing IS, but added: ‘We are acting as handmaidens to Kurdish independence, with implications for Turkey, which is why you have to have a wider strategy.’

Lord Ashdown continued: ‘It really is time we joined the dots. Instead of having a series of plans for a series of humanitarian catastrophes, we need to have an integrated strategy for containing a widening war.’

Mr Hammond has hailed the announcement that Iraq’s prime minister Nouri al-Maliki was relinquishing his post, calling on his replacement Haider al-Abadi to form an inclusive government.

It is hoped Mr al-Abadi will be better placed to unite Iraqis in fighting back against IS militants.