"They're so happy to be trained by the British troops," says Cpl Dale King.

He is part of a mission that is training Kurdish forces fighting militants from so-called Islamic State, in northern Iraq.

"They're actually having an impact against the threat of ISIL," Cpl King tells Newsbeat. "It's raising morale and increasing their fighting capability."

The mission, called Operation Shader, has now been going for a year.

British troops from the Second Battalion, The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment (who are based in Cyprus) travel to northern Iraq to deliver a three-week training programme to the Peshmerga fighters there.

The name Peshmerga translates as "those who face death". There are thought to be about 190,000 fighters.

They became the national fighting force of the Kurdish people in the wake of World War One.

Cpl King says the Peshmerga are keen to learn.

"They knew it was going to benefit them. Come the latter end of the training, they were always asking us for more. If they got something wrong, they'd be the first to say 'again, again,'" he says.

The training covers basic skills and drills, how to avoid and deal with IEDs (improvised explosive devices) safely, marksmanship training, heavy machine gun maintenance and medical training.

Lt Rob Smith explains that while the Peshmerga are experienced in the mountain environment, the current fight against ISIL is mainly in urban areas, in particular the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul.

"This is where our instruction came to the fore. [We] were able to train the Peshmerga to be experts in fighting in the urban terrain as well."

He says there's been "a massive improvement in the ability of the Peshmerga".

Pte Harry Corbyn says the Kurdish fighters think it is "great" soldiers from the UK have come to work with them.

"They loved us. They were quite keen to learn, they wanted more training," he says.

"Some of them have just turned 18 while some of them have been Peshmerga for 20-30 years, so you've got quite a big gap in age.

"Myself, being quite young, it was good to see some of the lads that have just turned 18-19 doing what they want to do for their region of northern Iraq."

Cpl King says the British soldiers gained "a really good rapport with the Peshmerga soldiers" while they were working together.

"Over the four months I was out there, my last team that I trained, they were loving me, I won't lie to you, high-fiving me all the time, saying, 'You're really good, you're really good, thank you for your training,'" he says.

The Peshmerga "despise" Islamic State, Cpl King says.

"They want them out of their land. They're all coming together to get rid of the poison that is ISIL."

Watch our YouTube video explainer on why so-called Islamic State has different names.

"It was fascinating to work with a foreign force and a foreign army who are experts in mountain warfare and very rough terrain," says Lt Smith.

"Just to get a different perspective on fighting was brilliant."

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