#Erbil

In Part One of this article, I shared my experiences after visiting gun stores in Baghdad, and it is not what most people expect to see in Iraq. Gun stores are small and cramped, with a relatively limited choice of firearms and really high prices. Thankfully, things in Iraqi Kurdistan are way different.

TFB TV takes a look at one of the famous gun shops in Erbil, a city in northern Iraq. Wasta Bakhtiar has had his gunsmithing business for a number of years, starting in his own father’s shop as a child in Kurdistan. Today he fixes both Peshmerga and civilian small arms alike, sometimes even traveling to the frontlines against Daesh when the fighting was active.

I challenge you to watch the above video, and tell me the majority of the tactics, gear, people, and location couldn’t have been easily mistaken for a large training center in the United States, such as Gunsite, Blackwater. The Erbil Training Center (ETC) claims to be the largest training facility within Iraq, and autonomous Kurdistan (northern Iraq). ETC boosts numerous short and long distance ranges, a CQB maneuver house, rappel tower, in addition to a wide variety of other establishments and shooting facilities. The Center appears to be much more specialized within the PSD and special operations capacity training than strict infantry material, or what the majority of the Peshmerga is engaged in when it comes to fighting Daesh. Indeed, with previous videos of Kurdish “SF” groups, I can recognize some of the background at this facility.