It is a crucial part of Europe’s response to ISIL.

While British and French fighter jets attack the group from the skies, German instructors are at work on the ground – training Kurdish Peshmerga forces in how to use sophisticated arms.

The instruction is being carried out in Irbill, the Iraqi Kurdish capital, and on home soil in Bavaria, where Kurdish fighters are being taught how to operate German anti-tank weapons.

Berlin is also supplying hardware and has just delivered its second shipment of military equipment to northern Iraq.

Germany announced in August that it would supply arms for some 4,000 Peshmerga fighters taking on ISIL – although some political voices in Berlin fear the weapons could end up in the wrong hands.