On Khazar frontline, Peshmerga and coalition jets keep ISIS at bay

KHAZAR FRONTLINE, Kurdistan Region – On a near freezing day at the Kalak Peshmerga checkpoint, a walkie-talkie radio crackles to life.

“Listen,” a Peshmerga fighter says, straining to hear a faint conversation in Arabic above the drone of a coalition fighter jet flying overhead. “It's Daesh talking,” he says.

The two voices belong to Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) fighters who occupy positions six kilometers from the checkpoint. The militants are discussing repairing a vehicle.

“We can't do it today, we'll have to do it tomorrow,” a man's voice says.

“Where are you?” another voice asks.

“At the old place,” comes the cryptic reply.

Since ISIS carried out major coordinated attacks across multiple sectors on December 16, the Khazar frontline between ISIS-occupied Mosul and Erbil has remained a flashpoint, with Peshmerga repelling attacks nearly daily.

Rockets, mortars and small arms fire are commonplace. But it's the armored suicide truck bombs that instill real fear in the Peshmerga.

With heavy weaponry stretched thin, commanders say coalition airstrikes are often the only thing stopping ISIS from breaking through the lines, just 40 kilometers west of Erbil, the capital of the Iraqi Kurdistan region.

Minutes after the overheard radio conversation, an explosion shakes the ground and smoke appears on the horizon southeast of the checkpoint.

Leaden clouds obscure the jet which dropped the bomb, but the boom from the distant airstrike draws a group of Western soldiers running from a cluster of prefabricated cabins.

Most are in uniform; one wears running shorts and a sweatshirt.

They're Canadian Special Forces and their colleagues closer to the frontlines are playing an essential role in coordinating the strikes, according to the Peshmerga.

The assistant commander of the Khazar frontline, Ato Zebari, doesn't want to talk much about the “top secret” work of the Canadian soldiers and their advise and assist mission. But he acknowledges that “they help coordinate airstrikes.”

He then adds: “We don't allow them to go and fight, though.”

The airstrikes are by far the Peshmerga's most effective weapon against ISIS, Zebari says. “ISIS plates their suicide truck bombs with armor and our weapons can't even stop them.”

The target of Tuesday's airstrike was not visible from the checkpoint, but according to a statement by the Joint Task Force of the US-led international coalition against ISIS, the coalition carried out 19 airstrikes across Iraq on Tuesday, including one near Mosul which “destroyed an ISIL rocket cache.”

Further along the Khazar front, Peshmerga were on edge on Tuesday.

“We can't sleep,” said Captain Ramadan Salah Mohamed, standing under a faint drizzle in thick, boot-clogging mud . “We never know when they will attack.”

The rolling terrain and empty hamlets along the frontline provide ISIS with excellent cover from which to launch attacks, he said. Several kilometers from his position, the village of Sheikh Emir hosted the local ISIS commander.

Mohamed claimed: “He gets Asiacell service from there.”

The most recent attack had occurred the night before. “It lasted for 20 minutes but was stopped by a coalition airstrike,” said Asayish commander, Captain Majid Faisal.

Despite the ongoing assaults and freezing weather, morale remained high among the fighters, according to Dana Dara, a 29-year-old Peshmerga from Kirkuk.

Standing in a soggy sandbagged position, Dara said neither the conditions nor the fact that he hadn't been paid in two months could dampen his martial spirit.

“Money is important to live, but it's not important enough to stop us from fighting,” he said, before surveying the frontline through the scope of his Serbian Zastava sniper rifle.

On Khazar frontline, Peshmerga and coalition jets keep ISIS at bay

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