Free Republic

NORTHERN IRAQ – On the Western side of Mosul, lies a forgotten front crucial to choking off ISIS' lifeline to Syria. Fox News recently made the eight hour trip west from Mosul to the front outside the devastated city of Sinjar and found a small outpost where a handful of men hold off near-daily attacks from ISIS fighters. One soldier manning the post was David Shumock, a 62-year-old Floridian and former U.S. Air Forces pararescueman. The American fights side-by-side with the Kurdish Peshmerga, and serves as medic and trainer to his comrades, as well. Shumock has called the dusty, makeshift,...

Al-Qaeda-inspired extremists seized control of the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar on Sunday, advancing against overstretched Kurdish forces and sending thousands of residents running for their lives. Families described scenes of panic as gunmen entered the town around 7 a.m. after Kurdish forces withdrew. The majority of residents are Yazidis, followers of a pre-Islamic faith, and the extremists accuse them of being devil worshipers. “People were terrified,” said Ilias al-Hussani, who like tens of thousands of others had fled on foot toward the mountains as soon as gunmen entered. “They are savages. We’ve seen what they’ve done to people of...

The Kurdish Regional Guards are the official and legal security force for the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq. They are commonly called the Peshmurga and they are the third largest army in Iraq. The Iraqi Army and (for now) the United States Forces in Iraq (AKA MNF-I) are the only two larger armies in Iraq. The Peshmurga also has the tightest operational security in Iraq. This tight operational security is why little data is available about the Peshmerga organization. That lack of data is why the Kurdish Regional Guards are not listed in the Iraqi Security Force Order of Battle.