Peshmerga: Iraqi Military Advancing in Two Areas Disputed With Kurds

October 18, 2017 By administrator

Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry reports Iraqi military’s offensive in Diyala province and nearby the Mosul Dam.

BAGHDAD (Sputnik) – Iraqi forces are continuing their advance in two areas disputed between Baghdad and Kurdistan, the secretary general of the Kurdish Peshmerga Ministry told Sputnik on Wednesday.

“Military action is underway, especially in two regions. There is an offensive in an area of the Diyala province … there is also another direction of advance in the area of the Mosul Dam. [Iraqi forces] are heading to the Syrian border, to the Rabia border crossing. From there, they will go in the direction of the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing at the Turkish border,” Jabbar Yawar said.

There are Peshmerga troops in these regions, however, they are not engaging in clashes with the Iraqi military in an effort to avoid confrontation, Yawar pointed out.

The tensions between Baghdad and Erbil escalated after recent independence referendum held in the Kurdistan region as well as disputed areas. At the vote, over 90 percent of the Kurds supported secession from Iraq. However, the referendum has been harshly opposed by Baghdad.

Earlier in the week, Iraqi forces, supported by Shiite militias, conducted an offensive on the disputed oil-rich region of Kirkuk. Media reported on Monday, that the Baghdad forces had gained control of the city. On Tuesday, Barzani said that the situation follows Peshmerga’s withdrawal from Kirkuk due to a unilateral decision of some Kurdish politicians.

Peshmerga secretary general suggested that Iraqi forces will not continue to advance beyond Kurdistan’s borders.

“I cannot imagine [the continuation of the Iraqi offensive into Kurdistan]. The troops will reach the border of 2003, they will establish control over these regions, and from there, they will head to the border crossings,” Jabar Yawar said, suggesting that Baghdad strives to capture and shut down the crossings at Kurdistan’s border with neighboring countries.

Such actions by Baghdad would mean a complete economic and military blockade of Kurdistan, Yawar pointed out.

Kurdish Peshmerga ‘given deadline’ in Kirkuk

October 14, 2017 By administrator

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters say Iraq’s central government has ordered them to surrender key military positions in the disputed city of Kirkuk within hours.

They were given a deadline of 02:00 on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday) to quit military facilities and oil fields.

Brief clashes also erupted between Kurdish forces and Shia militia backing the Iraqi government.

Tensions have been on the rise since Kurds held a referendum on independence last month, which Iraq called illegal.

The oil-rich province of Kirkuk is claimed by both the Kurds and Baghdad, though the two sides were recently united in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces took control of much of the province in 2014, when IS militants swept across northern Iraq and the army collapsed.

The Iraqi parliament asked Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send troops to Kirkuk and other disputed areas after the official referendum results – which overwhelmingly backed independence – were proclaimed.

The referendum was held in three autonomous provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan, but also in nearby Kurdish-held areas including Kirkuk.

The province, which bears the same name as the city, is thought to have a Kurdish majority, but Kirkuk has large Arab and Turkmen populations.

On Saturday, there was a brief outbreak of fighting near Kirkuk, with each side blaming the other, reports the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Iraq.

Pentagon stops paying peshmerga salaries amid Kurdish independence backlash

October 6, 2017 By administrator

Peshmerga forces stand in line to vote during the Kurds’ independence referendum in Sheikh Amir village, Iraq, Sept. 25, 2017. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

By Jack Detsch,

The US government has stopped paying Kurdish peshmerga fighters’ salaries after a yearlong agreement expired over the summer, and there are no current plans to renew it.

Under the deal negotiated by the Barack Obama administration in July 2016, the United States agreed to pay stipends to some 36,000 Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq. The agreement was expected to be renewed over the summer for another year, but US and Kurdish officials tell Al-Monitor that talks stalled as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) pursued a divisive referendum on independence and the IS presence in the region began to collapse.

“The department does not currently fund stipend payments for the peshmerga,” Defense Department spokesman Eric Pahon told Al-Monitor. “The memorandum of understanding between the Department of Defense and the KRG facilitating stipend support during the Mosul operation expired in July 2017, and the final stipend payment was transferred in early September.”

Peshmerga sources flatly accuse the Donald Trump administration of withholding support because of opposition to last month’s nonbinding referendum. The United States has taken Baghdad’s side in the dispute and refused to recognize the results, which indicate overwhelming support for Kurdish independence.

There was a plan to renew and sign a new similar memorandum of understanding, but the United States discontinued it because of the referendum, Brig. Gen. Hajar Omer Ismail, director of coordination and relations for the Ministry of Peshmerga, told Al-Monitor. He said no weapons had been received for a while even before the memorandum of understanding expired.

Pahon declined to comment on what he called “internal business matters.” He said the United States and the KRG did not have “any talks on the table” about renewing the memorandum of understanding for months prior to the Sept. 25 vote, “so the referendum has no effect at this point.”

The Pentagon in May released a budget request for fiscal year 2018 that assumed that the memorandum of understanding would be renewed this past summer. The request for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1 calls for $270 million for peshmerga stipends and $95 million for “sustainment,” 26% more than the $289.5 million requested for fiscal 2017 during Obama’s last year in office.

The budget request says the cost estimate for fiscal 2018 assumes the Department of Defense and the Ministry of Peshmerga would extend the memorandum of understanding for sustainment of peshmerga forces involved in achieving key objectives to counter IS. The request said the memorandum of understanding would, in addition to providing stipends, also facilitate Department of Defense “provision of weapons, ammunition, food, fuel, mobility assets, and sustainment support to the peshmerga.”

That May request may be moot, however, now that the memorandum of understanding has expired. Pahon said the budget is “not a static entity” and is expected to go through “tweaks and changes to match current operating conditions” as the counter-IS campaign targets the militant group’s last remaining holdouts in Iraq’s Anbar province.

Regardless, Pahon said the Pentagon continues to support the peshmerga with other forms of “military cooperation and security assistance” such as training and equipment.

“The stipend is not the entirety, or even the bulk, of our support for peshmerga forces fighting [IS],” he said. “We are providing the necessary support to our partner forces, at the approval of the government of Iraq, for ensuring the defeat” of IS.

Congress has also weighed in on the issue. A provision in the House of Representatives’ annual defense bill released in June threatened to cut funding for the peshmerga if the KRG decides to split from Baghdad, a clear signal to Erbil ahead of the referendum.

Separately, the Trump administration authorized a military sale in April worth nearly $300 million to equip two peshmerga brigades and arm them with 36 howitzers and small arms. Sources in Erbil say those weapons have yet to arrive.

Ismail, the Kurdish general, told Al-Monitor he did not remember the last time peshmerga troops received US weapons shipments, and said remaining American-supplied ammunition stocks were “not enough” for the fight against IS.

If the referendum does impact relations between Baghdad and Erbil, the Pentagon worries it could limit the fight against IS at a time when the militant group has lost more than 90% of its self-declared caliphate. In operations over the summer, Pentagon officials said, peshmerga fighters established a defensive line that ensnared or killed hundreds of IS fighters fleeing from Tal Afar.

Experts expect military support to continue to the peshmerga once tensions around the referendum subside.

“There are probably some hurt feelings,” Michael Knights, a Lafer fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Al-Monitor. “I think you would just wait for things to cool off.”

Jack Detsch is Al-Monitor’s Pentagon correspondent. Based in Washington, Detsch examines US-Middle East relations through the lens of the Defense Department. Detsch previously covered cybersecurity for Passcode, the Christian Science Monitor’s project on security and privacy in the Digital Age. Detsch also served as editorial assistant at The Diplomat Magazine and worked for NPR-affiliated stations in San Francisco.

U.S. threatens to cut payments to Peshmerga if Kurdistan breaks with Baghdad

June 29, 2017 By administrator

WASHINGTON,— U.S. congress is threatening to cut funding for Iraq’s vaunted Kurdish peshmerga fighters if the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ends up splitting with Baghdad.

The House Armed Services Committee released a draft annual defense bill this week that makes continued funding for the KRG “contingent” upon Erbil’s “participation in the government of a unified Iraq.” This summary language is not legally binding but signals congressional intent to the Donald Trump administration.

“The committee notes that funding provided to the [KRG] is to enhance Government of Iraq-KRG cooperation and support a unified effort to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),” the draft National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) reads. “Such funding should be contingent upon KRG participation in the government of a unified Iraq and on their continued good faith cooperation in the anti-ISIL campaign.”

At risk are hundreds of millions of dollars in annual US support for the peshmerga, who have gone without regular paychecks in the midst of the campaign against the Islamic State (IS) as Erbil struggled with a budget shortfall. Congress responded last year by allocating $480 million “in stipends and sustainment” to the peshmerga for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

The new congressional language comes as Erbil is gearing up for a long-awaited independence referendum in September.

The KRG representation office in Washington made it clear it took issue with the language, calling it “inartful” and pointing out that the language is nonbinding and may not survive reconciliation with the Senate version of the bill.

“It is the democratic right of the people of Kurdistan to hold a referendum on their future,” an official with the KRG office told Al-Monitor, “and no one that we have met in Congress has denied this fact.”

The KRG office in Washington also emphasized its cooperation with Congress in the campaign to counter IS.

“Members of the US Congress and, in particular, members of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees in both houses, have consistently recognized the essential role of the peshmerga in the fight against [IS] and the generosity of the people of Kurdistan in hosting up to 1.8 million displaced Iraqi and Syrian refugees,” the delegation said in a statement to Al-Monitor.

Still, the language is more bad news for the Kurds’ independence bid, said Bilal Wahab, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“The KRG wasn’t expecting US support, but they would be happy if the US would not oppose,” Wahab told Al-Monitor. ”And this language is therefore bad news. It has the hallmarks of opposition.”

Wahab noted that the Trump administration appears to be on the same page as Congress with regard to the referendum. The State Department signaled its opposition in a June 8 statement from spokeswoman Heather Nauert.

“We have expressed our concerns to authorities in the Kurdistan Region that holding a referendum — even this nonbinding resolution — at this time will distract from more urgent priorities: the defeat of ISIS, stabilization and the return of the displaced, managing the [Kurdistan] Region’s economic crisis, and resolving the [Kurdistan] Region’s internal political disputes,” Nauert said at the time.

Even if the language remains in the final bill, Wahab believes that the Trump administration still has some latitude in how it provides Iraq and the KRG with military assistance for the campaign to counter IS. “It’s up to the executive branch … whether they actually cut funding or not,” he said.

Kirk Sowell, the head of the political intelligence firm Utica Risk Services, predicted that the referendum, should it go forward, will not affect relations with the United States.

“The referendum will have no impact at all, at least in terms of US policy,” Sowell told Al-Monitor. “It is not even certain to happen, but assuming it does, nothing will change afterward. The question is framed like an opinion poll, and there is no legal or institutional structure to turn a ‘yes’ vote into something real. The status quo will continue.”

Kurdish opposition parties have also criticized the referendum on the grounds that it’s nonbinding. But Massoud Barzani insisted today that it was binding in a Washington Post op-ed while persisting in his calls to move forward.

“When the Islamic State attacked Kurdistan in 2014 — using advanced US weapons abandoned by the Iraqi army in Mosul — the Iraqi government refused to give Kurdistan its constitutionally mandated share of the federal budget or to provide our soldiers … with weapons,” Barzani wrote in the op-ed. “As an independent country, we could have financed and equipped our own troops and brought this fight to a swifter conclusion.”

Kurds’ Peshmerga affiliated with Turkey Clash With Yazidi Militia in Western Iraq

March 3, 2017 By administrator

The so-called Rojava Peshmerga group attacked forces of the Yazidi Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) in the town of Knanesor, located in the western Iraqi Shingal district near the city of Mosul.

People of Shingal fought back, trying to stop the Rojava Peshmergas, the ANF media outlet reported on Friday, adding that the local Yazidi Peshmerga forces were fighting the attackers as well.

“As forces of the YBS-YJS [Shingal Women’s Resistance Units], we know very well what is the purpose of this attack and who are behind it. KDP [Kurdistan Democratic Party] wants the YBS/YJS defeated and intends to drive them out of Shengal. However, KDP will never achieve this goal of theirs. We will not allow attacks, and we will not allow another massacre against our people,” YJS Commander Viyan Hebab said, as cited by the media.

The clashes have ceased partially, but the tension remains high, the media added.

Rojava Peshmerga group is a paramilitary wing of the Kurdish National Council, supported by the KDP. The group, reportedly of 5,000 fighters, is affiliated with Turkey which allegedly trained and funded the Rojava Pashmergas to fight against the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the biggest Kurdish party in Syria.

Shingal is a mainly Yazidi-populated district in the western Iraqi governorate of Nineveh. In August 2014, terrorists of Daesh (outlawed in Russia) managed to seize the town of Sinjar, defeating the Kurds and Yazidis. In December 2014, the Peshmerga-led offensive pushed Daesh forces out of the region.

Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga Commander: We don’t want Turkey in Mosul operation

October 4, 2016 By administrator

peshmerga-no-turkey-mosul Kirkuk Peshmerga Commander said the Iraqi central government and coalition forces do not want Turkey’s involvement in the Mosul operation, adding: “If Turkey partakes in this operation, I guess this could end up in clashes with Iraqi forces.”

Kirkuk Peshmerga Commander Wıstan Resul spoke to ANF about the operation to liberate Mosul which is expected to start soon.

Resul stated that: “Peshmerga forces will advance from east of Mosul. Their progress continues and they have taken control over a large part of this line. However, peshmerga forces will not enter the city centre of Mosul. We are waiting for the beginning of the operation which is being determined by the coalition forces and the Iraqi central government.”

Resul remarked that they expect the battle to last long and be severe, saying: “In consideration of the preparations being made, I guess a major battle could develop in Mosul city centre and attacks with multiple battle methods could take place, especially on the other side of the river.”

Resul pointed out that they, the Iraqi central government and coalition forces do not want Turkey’s involvement in the Mosul operation, adding: “If Turkey partakes in this operation, I guess this could end up in clashes with Iraqi forces.”

Kirkuk Peshmerga Commander Wıstan Resul also spoke about the Hawija operation which -he said- they were running in coordination with the Iraqi central government.

“Operational forces have taken up their positions and we have already determined how they will move. We will make a statement once the time for the operation comes”, he added.

Source: http://www.anfenglish.com/kurdistan/peshmerga-commander-we-don-t-want-turkey-in-mosul-operation

https://youtu.be/nWatPqUkG8U

Second senior Kurdish commander killed as Peshmerga retake villages south of Iraq’s Kirkuk

February 1, 2015 By administrator

KIRKUK, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— On the second day of fighting with Islamist militants south of Kirkuk Peshmerga commander, Major General Hussein Mansour was killed Saturday near the village of Mala Abdullah. Report ekurd

Brigadier Sarhad Qadir, chief of Kirkuk suburban police told Rudaw that Maj.-Gen. Mansour was killed by an Islamic State group IS sniper.

Maj.-Gen. Mansour was the commander of the 2nd combat support units in the Kirkuk region.

According to Brig. Qadir, he was killed when a large force of Peshmerga and anti-terror squad launched an attack against IS positions in Mala Abdullah and several nearby villages.

On Friday Brigadier General Sherko Fatih Shwani and five other members of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces were killed and 46 more were wounded in the fighting, a police brigadier general and a doctor said, but the final casualty figure for Kurdish troops was unclear.

Shwani, the commander of the 1st Peshmerga Brigade, was killed when IS fighters attacked Kurdish positions with car bombs and suicide bombers, triggering fierce clashes.

The bodies of 15 IS militants were found in the village as the Peshmerga took control, said Brig. Qadir.

Kurdish forces have been locked in heavy battle with IS militants for the past 48 hours south of Kirkuk where on Friday Brigadier Sherko Shwani and eight Peshmerga soldiers were killed.

The Peshmerga forces and police retook an oil field in Kirkuk province Saturday that was seized by the Islamic State group overnight, and freed 24 workers who had been taken captive, officers said.

“Peshmerga forces and police cleared the Khubbaz (oil) field a little while ago and were able to enter it after surrounding it for hours,” police Brigadier General Sarhad Qader said of the fighting, adding that they also retook eight villages.

Turkish military blocks locals from joining Peshmerga mission to Kobane

October 30, 2014 By administrator

By Alexander Whitcomb 8 hours ago

Peshmerga forces wait to deploy to Kobane.

ERBIL/SYRIAN-TURKISH BORDER—The Turkish military is holding Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers seven kilometers from the Turkish border to Syria, delaying their mission in the besieged city of Kobane, Peshmerga officials told Rudaw.

A Peshmerga commander says his troops are in the town of Pirsus, guarded by Turkish military to prevent enthusiastic locals from joining the Iraqi Kurdish unit. The Iraqi Kurdish troops will provide artillery support to the Syrian Kurdish militia defending the city.

He declined to provide further details about the location and timing of their passage to Kobane, but confirmed that the Islamic State had intensified attacks in expectation of their arrival and the US-led coalition planned targeted airstrikes to facilitate a safe crossing.

They will be the first foreign soldiers to be dispatched to the Syrian Kurdish border town, which has been under siege by ISIS for more than 40 days. Local Kurdish fighters have held out with backing from US-led airstrikes.

This comes a day after the Free Syrian Army (FSA) said 200 its fighters had entered Kobane at the request of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian-Kurdish force that has been defending the city against an ISIS takeover.

Approximately 150 Peshmerga arrived in Turkey early Wednesday morning in two groups, one flying to Sanliurfa airport in the country’s south-east, the other crossing by land with a trucks filled with heavy weapons.

Soldiers were bussed in to a camp near to the border, where the two contingents gathered and stayed overnight.

The trip was not been without complications. A Peshmerga medic told Rudaw on Wednesday evening that the Turkish authorities refused to let Peshmerga cross with their guns or uniforms, and complained about the miserable conditions of a camp they were made to stay in.

“There are no facilities in the place we are staying,” Issettin Temo, part of the small medical team accompanying the soldiers said in a telephone call from Turkey. “We do not have a bar of soap nor a washbasin to wash our hands. We feel like prisoners. We have no connection with the outside world. However we can do nothing but wait for our guns to reach us. Our journey is being delayed because of this.”

He believed that the Turkish escort resented the local support the Peshmerga enjoyed. The troops arrived great fanfare in Turkey. Thousands of people rushed from surrounding areas to greet the land convoy and the soldiers in Sanliurfa.

“People came out onto the streets to greet the Peshmerga,” he added. “They are mistreating and insulting us because of this.”

Turkey’s intelligence agency MIT was ordered to coordinate the crossing of the Peshmerga into Syria, according to the Hurriyet daily.

The newspaper reported the Turkish army saying it was unwilling to undertake the task, and would only be involved during the Kurdish soldiers’ crossing of the military zone at the border.

The reason why Peshmerga did not immediately cross into Kobane has not been confirmed by officials.

Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported that YPG forces had originally refused entry to Free Syrian Army troops on Wednesday. According to the paper, YPG distrusted the fighters and claimed were linked to ISIS troops.

The Turkish military intervened, citing a previous agreement with YPG leadership to allow the FSA passage, and threatened they would be sent in with the Peshmerga troops. At this point, Milliyet reports, the FSA was allowed to cross, but Peshmerga held near the border overnight.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) claimed it had proposed the idea of a Peshmerga mission to Kobane three weeks ago in a series of secret meetings with Turkey, the United States, and Syrian Kurds.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reaffirmed U.S. enthusiasm for the plan, saying: “we welcome the support they would provide to Kobane’s defense.” U.S. General US General Lloyd Austin met with Kurdish leadership do discuss the Kobane strategy and other security issues on Tuesday.

But Turkey did not cooperate with the United States on an airdrop of medical and military supplies to YPG forces in Kobane last week, publicly denouncing the mission.

More than 800 people died in the first 40 days of fighting in Kobane, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated this week.  It said it had documented the deaths of 21 Kurdish civilians, 481 ISIS militants and 302 fighters from the YPG.

More than 800 people died in the first 40 days of fighting in Kobane, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated this week. It said it had documented the deaths of 21 Kurdish civilians, 481 ISIS militants and 302 fighters from the YPG.

The monitoring group said the actual death toll could be twice as high, because both sides were remaining silent on casualties, and many areas that had suffered heavy clashes and bombardment were difficult to access.

Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch in Istanbul

150 Kurdish Peshmerga forces killed, 500 injured in battle with ISIL according to KRG

August 8, 2014 By administrator

Erbil (IraqiNews.com) On Friday the Chief of Staff to the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Dr. Fuad Hussein, said that 150 Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers were killed and 500 were wounded in battles with the terrorist organization the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL.

Dr. Hussein said in a joint press conference in Erbil, with Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, attended by IraqiNews.com that “Peshmerga forces provided 150 martyrs during the battles fought by the organization with Daash (also known as ISIL)” and added that “the number of the wounded from the Peshmerga during those battles reached 500.”

Hussein added that Kurdish “Peshmerga forces are currently battling ISIL but there is a disparity in weapons used,” explaining that “ISIL used tanks and artillery, which it acquired from Iraqi forces.”

Mosul: Militants Surrounded in Shengal in Intense Peshmerga Offensive

August 5, 2014 By administrator

By RUDAW

Peshmerga forces advancing to liberate Shengal from IS control.

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Peshmerga forces locked in an intense offensive against the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) in Shengal had the militants surrounded and driven to the town center early on Monday.

Zeravani special forces, Gulan units and a third force were encircling Shengal on three sides, a Rudaw correspondent in the area said, quoting officials as saying that 90 militants had been killed in two days of fighting.

The reporter added that the militants have taken position inside residential areas and homes, from where they are fighting back.

Meanwhile, a commander of the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) told Rudaw by telephone that his forces have crossed the border and joined the Kurdistan Region Peshmerga in their fight in Shengal and Rabia.

The Peshmerga forces retook the village of Walid near the Rabia border crossing with Syria on Monday morning, the Rudaw correspondent said.

In the early hours of Monday, the Kurdish forces also expelled IS fighters from Wanek township near Tilkef, as the Peshmerga made swift advances to retake Shengal and Zumar, near Mosul.

Wanek, near the Mosul dam, fell to the IS on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Peshmerga Ministry Spokesman Jabar Yawar disclosed some details of the heavy weapons the Kurdish forces have newly received for their war with IS, which has declared an Islamic state straddling Iraq and Syria.

Yawar said the Kurdish forces are now armed with heavy artillery, tanks, high-caliber machineguns and mortar launchers.

“The Peshmerga forces have all the advanced weapons except air power,” Yawar said, adding that the weapons had gone to two Peshmerga units.

Thousands of Peshmarga were dispatched to war areas near the Syrian border on Sunday.