Isis Crisis: British Troops Begin Training Iraqi Kurdish Forces in Erbil

A team of about 12 British military personnel is engaged in training the Iraqi Kurdish forces to fight Isis militants, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The soldiers, who are part of the "small specialist team", have been deployed near the Kurdish capital of Erbil in northern Iraq, the MoD added.

Though the UK has been supplying aid and weapons to the Kurdish Pesmerga forces to help them in their fight against the Sunni insurgents, this is the first time training personnel are being deployed. The troops have been drafted from the Yorkshire Regiment.

RAF aircraft have also been launching airstrikes since the Commons approval last month.

"The Defence Secretary [Michael Fallon] has approved the deployment of a small specialist team of non-combat Army trainers which is now in the Erbil area providing instruction on operating, employing and maintaining the heavy machine guns that were gifted by the UK last month," a spokesperson for the ministry said, according to multiple reports.

This is expected to be a short-term deployment lasting only for a few days and the British troops will not be involved in any armed confrontation.

The latest development comes amid intense fighting in the Syrian-Turkish border town of Kobani.

Meanwhile, a series of blasts have rocked the Shiite-dominated areas of the Iraqi capital Baghdad killing at least 50 people.

Al Jazeera reported there were two car bombs while a third was set off by a suicide bomber in a western Baghdad neighbourhood.