ERBIL, Iraq
The Peshmerga Ministry of the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq has announced that it has started to receive applications from Christian and Ezidi youth who wish to join its forces in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, or ISIL.
Successful applicants would be deployed to various peshmarga units after their training, Ministry spokesman Helgurd Hikmet said in a statement published on the regional government's official website on Monday.
The new policy aims to better protect the territories controlled by the Kurdish peshmergas against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, Hikmet added.
The number of Christian and Ezidi recruits has yet to be determined, he added.
An international conference on Iraq, attended by 29 countries, kicked off in Paris on Monday in order to discuss the means to combatting ISIL.
Two days before the conference, ISIL posted a video on the internet featuring the beheading of a British hostage, weeks after videos showing the beheading of two American journalists.
Violence by ISIL has claimed more than 1,400 lives in the month of August alone, and caused 1.2 million Iraqis, including Turkmen, Arabs, Christians and Ezidis, to flee their homes.
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