In the latest attack on the Makhmour-Gwer front that is only about 40 kilometers southwest of Erbil, six Kurdish soldiers were injured by ISIS mortars containing chemical weapons, Sirwan Barzani, the Peshmerga commander on the war’s most active front, confirmed to Rudaw English.
Soldiers told Rudaw that their wounded comrades suffered nausea, vomiting and burning eyes after the attack – the most obvious signs of chemical weapons use.
Rebin Rojbayani, another Peshmerga commander on the front, said the weather had probably saved them from more injuries.
“It was windy yesterday,” he told Rudaw, explaining that winds prevent the chemical gas from remaining concentrated in one place and doing greater harm.
“We are fighting on one of the most active fronts of this war, and we don’t have much protection against chemical attacks,” he said. “We don’t have too many masks and no body suits at all to protect from such attacks,” said Rojbayani. “There aren’t really even any proper medicines to use when we are attacked,” he lamented.
Peshmerga sources said that the incoming mortars in the latest attack probably contained mustard gas – the second such attack in a week on the Makhmour-Gwer front.
In February, at least three Peshmerga were wounded by ISIS chemical attacks on the same front line, where ISIS fired 45 mortar shells loaded with mustard gas at the Peshmerga in August.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the German military – which has trainers with the Peshmerga -- have previously acknowledged evidence of chemical weapons attacks on Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers fighting ISIS.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that ISIS had used mustard gas against the Peshmerga in August.
Kurdish soldiers in Makhmour say they have received training against chemical weapons attacks; but they say that is not enough.
“We have been taught protective steps and techniques, but without equipment there is little we can do with the knowledge alone,” said Rojbayani, who has himself received training by French experts. Germany also has provided such training to the Peshmerga.
Rojbayani is now teaching his forces what to do if attacked with chemical weapons.
“I teach them all that I have learned myself, but at the end of the day we have only water and bleach to wash the injuries,” he explained, “because bleach is the only thing we have in plenty.”
Gas masks can protect eyes and lungs, but normal military uniforms provide little to no protection, as mustard gas will penetrate clothing and be absorbed across anybody surface. What they need are full body suits, which commanders at Makhmour said they did not have.
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A pair of Peshmerga soldiers on the Makhmour front, one of the key battlegrounds of the war with ISIS. Photo: Farzin Hassan (Rudaw).
The Gwer-Makhmour front is considered one of the key battlegrounds of the war with ISIS, and a step toward the all-important battle for Mosul, the ISIS stronghold in Iraq that US President Barack Obama has vowed will be liberated this year.
Thousands of Iraqi forces have also deployed on the Makhmour front, and US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced in Baghdad this week that the coordination for the battle for Mosul has taken place with Kurdish and Iraqi leaders.
He also announced a $415 million package of financial assistance to the Peshmerga in response to a request from the KRG for economic assistance. But a US official told Rudaw later that the package is actually worth $900 million, and that the first funds are expected to be delivered by the end of April.
On the windswept Makhmour front where the Peshmerga are standing up to a ruthless enemy, the soldiers hope that more money for the KRG will translate into better protection for them – especially as ISIS becomes more desperate.
But Rojbayani told Rudaw English he was skeptical that the money would translate into things like gas masks and body suits.
“I don’t think the money will be a great help if it is not directly used to buy equipment for the Peshmerga,” he said. “Based on what we understand, the major part of that money will be used for American advisors and training courses for the Peshmerga, while our top priority is getting more equipment for our soldiers.”
Since ISIS attacked the Kurdistan Region in August 2014, igniting the war with Iraq’s Kurds, Peshmerga forces have been urging the international community to expand support. The Kurds are fighting on despite a huge financial crisis, brought on because Baghdad has refused to pay the KRG’s full share of the national budget since the war began in the summer of 2014. In addition, the KRG has to care for nearly 2 million war refugees from Syria and the rest of Iraq that have taken shelter in Kurdistan.
“With more money we could buy more masks, body suits, night vision cameras and armored vehicles,” Rojbayani said. “We need more of everything – even food.”
At the front, facing a deadly enemy that daily tries to take Kurdish lives, Rojbayani can only dream of getting enough gas masks, body suits and other protective gear for all his men: “in order to keep on fighting and protecting our homeland, many of us are paying for our uniforms out of our own pockets,” the commander explained.
