On the ground with Kurdish forces

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This was published 9 years ago

On the ground with Kurdish forces

By Ruth Pollard

The sickly smell of diesel hangs in the air as Kurdish forces carefully scan the two kilometres of no man's land separating them from the Islamic State militants who control the nearby village of Hasan Sham.

It's 43 degrees in the shade at this Peshmerga outpost – one of dozens along an impossibly vast frontline that stretches from the Syrian border to Iran – and there is the unmistakable hum of an F/A18 fighter jet prowling high above us.

Commander Majdid Harki at outpost outside Kalak in Kurdistan, the semi-autonomous region of Iraq.

Commander Majdid Harki at outpost outside Kalak in Kurdistan, the semi-autonomous region of Iraq.Credit: Ruth Pollard

The fumes are emanating from a large pile of 14.5mm machinegun cartridges, freshly cleaned of a fine coating of sand using diesel fuel.

Beyond the sound of the jet it is eerily quiet

Kurdish Peshmerga near the town of Makhmur, south of Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan preparing to fight Islamic State militants.

Kurdish Peshmerga near the town of Makhmur, south of Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan preparing to fight Islamic State militants.Credit: Reuters

"There is only so much we can do," they say, "with old AK-47s and the guns we have mounted on the back of our trucks."

There is no sign at this tiny army station of any weapons, munitions or military equipment that Australia, Canada, Italy, France and the United Kingdom have agreed to transport to Iraq at the request of the United States.

Instead there is an old, well-maintained tank stationed on the hill and the men are mostly armed with vintage AK-47s, all at least 40 years old, save for two US-made M16s they say they took from dead Islamic State militants in a recent battle.

A few kilometres away at the makeshift Peshmerga headquarters on the outskirts of the town of Kalak, Dr Rowsch Shaways, the outgoing deputy prime minister of Iraq and former Peshmerga commander, is overseeing operations at the strategic front line protecting Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

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"It is not something that can be resolved with the delivery of one consignment of weapons; it will require the continuous efforts of the international community." Dr Rowsch Shways, outgoing Iraqi deputy PM.

"It is not something that can be resolved with the delivery of one consignment of weapons; it will require the continuous efforts of the international community." Dr Rowsch Shways, outgoing Iraqi deputy PM.

It is the last place the 67-year-old politician from a prominent Kurdish family expected to find himself, but he believes his presence sends a clear message to the population – Kurds, Christians, Yazidis, Turkmen, Shiite and Sunni alike – that "we will do anything to protect them".

"This has become a centre that is battling terrorism, while at the same time we are also defending and protecting religious and ethnic minorities who are being targeted," Shaways says, as a steady stream of Peshmerga fighters arrive for meetings with the political leader.

A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter.

A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter.Credit: Reuters

"It is not something that can be resolved with the delivery of one consignment of weapons, it will require the continuous efforts of the international community."

The Peshmerga are brave, he says, but bravery is not enough to fight the militants of the Islamic State – that involves an ongoing supply of modern weapons like the ones Australia will deliver for the Kurdish forces.

But deep, historical tensions between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government are delaying the arrival of these weapons, Shaways says.

He directly accused the government in Baghdad of preventing the delivery of the weapons in order to "keep the Peshmerga weak – a policy that has been a constant of the Baghdad government for years". An official from the Ministry of the Peshmerga repeated the allegations.

Fairfax Media contacted defence officials in the Ministry of Interior to put these allegations to them, but they did not return the calls prior to publication.

The accusation is at odds with two statements released by the Australian Defence Force this week that said RAAF C-17 transport planes had successfully delivered arms and munitions to Erbil. Both statements said the stores had been "inspected and cleared " by Iraqi officials in Baghdad and were delivered to the Kurdish forces "without incident".

The US air strikes, coupled with the promise of an influx of modern weapons, had significantly raised the moral of Kurdish forces, Shaways says, and the idea that the weapons will not make it to the frontlines would be devastating.

Security co-operation between Iraqi and Kurdish forces is a key issue for the joint taskforce that is meeting in the lead up to the scheduled formation of a new Iraqi government on September 9, he says.

The weapons – when they are cleared by the Iraqi Army – will be transported to a warehouse controlled by the Ministry of the Peshmerga. The Kurdish forces will be trained in their use by specialists from countries providing the weapons, then distributed to the areas of greatest need along the 1050-kilometre front line, Shaways says. Some training provided by French and American specialists has already begun.

But there are fears the weapons may fall into the hands of the military wing of the PKK – the Kurdistan Worker's Party that is listed by Australia and many other Western countries as a terrorist group – who are active in the region.

The PKK has been fighting an insurgency in neighbouring Turkey for decades, demanding an independent homeland for Kurds.

In recent months, as their efforts in Turkey have focused on reconciliation rather than armed rebellion, they have turned their attention to another enemy – the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS

It is understood the PKK, with the support of its Syrian equivalent, the People's Protection Units, or YPG, pushed through Islamic State lines and provided a safe passage for the minority Yezidis trapped on Mount Sinjar.

Shaways is at pains to point out that the Peshmerga will hold on to any weapons provided by the US, Australia and other Western countries who have agreed to support the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq.

"They will not fall into the wrong hands, we need these weapons for the sole purpose of fighting terrorism," he says. "There is now the possibility that we can not only defend our land but also launch counter attacks and free more villages from the control of the terrorists."

"Our overall objective is to expel the militants from Iraq and then from Syria also."

The US has launched at least 124 air strikes in Iraq since its operations against Islamic State militants began in early August, many of them aimed at regaining control of Mosul Dam, which

But the militants keep fighting back, and they will, says Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based terror expert, until the efforts of the Kurdish forces, backed by the Iraqi Army and Shiite militia, are properly supported by the Sunni populations in Mosul and Tikrit, the two key Iraqi towns to fall when IS began its campaign of terror in Iraq on June 10.

The US air strikes have been very useful in pushing the militants back but they are not enough to destroy the movement completely, he says.

"The most vulnerable areas to IS attacks are those close to Erbil, such as Makhmur, Dibaga and Qwer

The situation is the same in Tikrit – they cannot liberate that area unless they have the support of the Sunnis who live there, he says.

Aymenn al-Tamimi

He says although US air strikes helped local troops break the IS siege on the town of Amerli, for example, there was still "a very long way to go and without further US air support they cannot go much further".

"Even the Iraqi government forces, backed by Shiite militia groups who have been involved in fighting around Fallujah and Tikrit have not managed to take back these areas."

"In the end the decisive factor is whether there will be a wider Sunni Arab pushback against IS, and so far it does not look so likely."

There are some local groups in Mosul conducting small-scale IED

"They had good connections with influential local tribesmen but in the end they were no match for IS

Although the US air strikes and the subsequent ground operations from local forces have ensured some ground has been regained, the IS attacks keep coming.

On Thursday jihadists kidnapped dozens of residents from the northern village of Tal Ali after villagers burned one of their positions along with a jihadist flag, police and other witnesses reported. Their fate at this time is unknown but there are grave fears for their survival.

Militants from the IS have carried out ethnic cleansing on a vast scale, says Amnesty International in a report released this week.

The group has "systematically targeted non-Arab and non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, and forcing more than 830,000 others to flee the areas it has captured since June 10."

Ethnic and religious minorities – Assyrian Christians, Turkmen Shiite, Shabak Shiite, Yazidis, Kakai and Sabean Mandaeans – have lived together in the Nineveh province, much of it now under IS control, for centuries, Amnesty says.

Today, only those who were unable to flee when IS fighters seized the area remain trapped there, under threat of death if they do not convert to Islam, while possibly thousands of Yezidis, most of them women and children, were abducted as they fled the IS takeover in early August.

"They continue to be held by the IS and, with a few exceptions, little is known of their fate or whereabouts," the report warns.

The fate of at least two hostages held by the Islamic State – American journalists James Foley and Steve Sotloff – is devastatingly clear and that of another hostage, a British aid worker, now also hangs in the balance.

On August 19 when Foley's captors released the video showing his execution by beheading, the US had conducted more than 80 air strikes. The last chilling message from that video was that Sotloff would also be killed if the bombing raids continued.

This week, 44 air strikes later, the worst fears of his family, friends and colleagues were realised when a video of his execution via beheading was released to the world.

Back at the Peshmerga base near Kalak, where the white tents in the deserted UN camp for displaced Iraqis across the highway shrink in the intense autumn heat, Deputy Prime Minister Shaways says the situation cannot be resolve by military force alone.

"We must have a good and just political process running along side this acton," he says.

"It must be led from Baghdad and it must end with Sunni support for the government, not for the Islamic State – only when it is clear that the government is democratic and inclusive of all Iraqis will this happen, only then can the damage of the past that led us here be repaired."

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