QAYYARAH, Iraq: Iraq’s elite Rapid Response Division, which is now at the forefront of the southern advance on Mosul, has emerged as a key assault force in the country’s war against jihadists. “The Rapid Response Division needed combat equipment… to implement its assigned duties,” he said. Tough trainingTo become part of Rapid Response, both officers and enlisted personnel must go through multiple rounds of grueling training. There is a rivalry between the Rapid Response Division and the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), Iraq’s best known special forces unit. Hamid recalled an intercepted conversation during the Fallujah battle in which IS said that Rapid Response forces were “like devils, I don’t know… how they’re advancing.”“It is not that they have no fear—there is no one who is not afraid,” Hamid said of Rapid Response.

Source: Manila Times October 27, 2016 11:44 UTC