ARBIL (Reuters) – Iran supplied weapons and ammunition to Iraqi Kurdish forces, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani said Tuesday at a joint press conference with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Arbil, capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.

“We asked for weapons and Iran was the first country to provide us with weapons,” Barzani said.

Militants from the Islamic State have clashed with Kurdish peshmerga fighters in recent weeks and taken control of some areas on the periphery of Iraqi Kurdistan.

(Reporting by Isabel Coles; Writing by Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Louise Ireland)

-THESTAR