Kurdish Peshmerga Fight Endless Stream of ISIS Militants in Iraq

Delta Force-trained commander Polad Talabani has few illusions about the scale of the task facing his elite team which has been ordered to halt the march of militants aiming to seize Baghdad.

Talabani, who is in charge of the Kurdish Regional Government's counter-terrorism unit, says his troops have inflicted heavy casualties on the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

The biggest battles are being fought in the smallest villages in this showdown between Talabani's 160 men and a seemingly endless stream of al Qaeda-inspired insurgents. And as soon as any Sunni fighters are killed, Talabani says "dozens more will appear from nowhere to flood the battlefield."

Kurdish paramilitary forces known as the Peshmerga are standing in the way of the heavily armed extremists who have taken control of cities including Mosul and Tikrit and who are inching closer to the Iraqi capital.

The Peshmerga are engaged in small running battles with ISIS fighters along a 600-mile stretch of border between the Kurdish region and the area were ISIS has footholds in villages and towns used as staging areas. The Kurdish Regional Government -- which runs a semi-autonomous region in Iraq dating back to an agreement with Saddam Hussein's government in 1970 -- has mobilized 40,000 fighters to the front line. The Kurds also seized Kirkuk and its nearby oilfields on June 12 under the justification that the city of 900,000 needed protection from ISIS.

If this happens, will Saddam's Baathists (who may be behind organizing larger almost conventional military attacks) reconstitute - and start assassinate and executing al Qaeda splinter groups?

Surely there are plenty of tribes and citizens who will be looking for revenge against ISIS’ butcherings and mass murders. All it takes is ISIS butchering someone from the wrong tribe or family and they make a lot of enemies - perhaps entire provinces. This I believe was part of the strategy Petraeus successfully used to build local support for coalition operations against al Qaeda.

Watching ISIS break apart will be kind of like putting scorpions in a bottle and watching them fight it out. We need not and should not choose sides but leave it up to the Iraqis to sort out which scorpions they are willing to be ruled by.

It's not as simple as Turkey hates Kurds.

"In the face of the ISIS sweep, the [Syrian Kurdish] PYD and the KRG, which [like the PYD and Turkey have] antagonistic relations, [but] appear to be cooperating on defensive measures against ISIS." This new situation may even lessen the antagonism between the PYD and Turkey.

I believe that Washington supported these ISIS things against Assad. And so did Turkey. Turkey has financial interest in the KRG. Below is how Turkey like us must now oppose ISIS.

The KRG is NOT the Kurdish PKK terrorist that's been fighting Turkey since the 1980s and trying to stir revolution in eastern Turkey.

This has some interesting information about the current events in Iraq. IMO.

". . . Ankara has entered into energy deals with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), something which has infuriated the central Iraqi government in Baghdad but which has helped the Kurds further build a foundation for their independence [yes true that] Ankara has been so alarmed by the growing Kurdish autonomy [in Syria and tolerated by Syria, I believe] that it reportedly has provided support for [ISIS] in their fight against the Kurdish militia that controls the region [of Syria],which is affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)." [my emphasis]

more..

". . . the takeover by ISIS in recent days of Mosul and other cities . . . Ankara will likely not only have to deepen its relationship with the KRG . . . but also alter its approach to the Kurds in Syria [I ask: but demand that the Kurds in Syria reject the PKK?]"

more..

"Explains Lehigh University professor and Turkey expert Henri Barkey in an analysis piece on Al-Monitor website: The crisis may force the Turks to rethink some of their policies in Syria. To date, Ankara’s friendship with the Kurds stopped in Iraq; Erdogan and his government have taken an uncompromising position against Syrian Kurds led by the Democratic Union Party of Kurdistan (PYD), an offshoot of the Turkish Kurdish insurgent group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PYD has emerged as the strongest Kurdish group in Syria and has put together an impressive fighting force to defend its territory from both ISIS and the regime. The idea of another autonomous Kurdish region on its borders after the KRG has been anathema to Ankara. Paradoxically, the PYD’s armed elements are some of the only ones that have scored blows against the jihadists. In the face of the ISIS sweep, the PYD and the KRG, which have also had antagonistic relations, appear to be cooperating on defensive measures against ISIS. Turkey may have to reconsider its boycott of the Syrian Kurds to enlarge the anti-ISIS coalition." [my emphasis]

The Baathists are akin to the MeK in Iran, in my view. Very similar ideology as well. I, too, doubt the Baathist will be surprised, but I do think there will be a strong likelihood of serious bloodbath should either group decide not to share power, which they won't.

Currently, there are also other 'Sunni Islamic groups' operating in tandem with ISIS; that's in addition to several Iraqi-sunni tribes. According to Peshmerga, some Arab-sunni tribes are being paid to side with ISIS or at least not interfere. Which group will ultimately have the upperhand will depend on a number of factors & is anyone's guess at present.

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