Fog of War Surrounds Peshmerga-Islamic State Fighting

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Over the past several days Kurdish Peshmerga forces have been locked in their fiercest battles with the armies of the Islamic State (IS/ISIS) along several frontlines, with both sides largely in defensive positions.

In the last 24 hours alone, the Kurds have exchanged fire with the militants near Makhmur, Gwer, Shingal, Zumar, Mahmoudia, and the outlying neighborhoods of Mosul.

Yet neither side has made much gain, with heavy exchange of artillery, mortar shells and machinegun fire.

On all the fronts the Peshmerga are largely in defensive positions and fighting to advance only on Shingal to retake the town from IS, which captured it on Saturday, forcing tens of thousands of Kurdish-Yezidi residents to flee to an arid mountain on the outskirts.

There, a human catastrophe has been unfolding: A Rudaw reporter on the scene said Wednesday that the death toll on Shingal Mountain was rising by the minute, with bodies scattered among the rocks, especially of children and the elderly who have been perishing from starvation, thirst and exhaustion.

Yet the families cannot risk descending the mountain as their Kurdish identity and Yezidi faith has made them a prime target for the extremist group.

Rudaw reporters on the frontlines say that the militants do not appear to be interested in advancing into Kurdish territories and are fighting to stop any possible Kurdish advance into their lands: the Kurdistan Region shares a 1,000-kilometer southern border with the newly-declared Islamic State.

Both sides are thinly stretched along this long and porous border, but at certain points they are better equipped and more determined to stay on and fight.

The extremist group is concentrated on the outskirts of Mosul, fighting to hold on to Shingal and their open border with Syria near the town of Rabia.

Elsewhere, in Tuz Khurmatu, Jalawla, Makhmur and the Mosul dam, the rebels have been launching small scale attacks without much success.

Kurdish military leaders say they have responded and repelled every attack on all the fronts.

Since June 10, when Islamic fighters crossed over from Syria and occupied Iraq’s Sunni heartland the Kurds had fought to defend Kurdish-populated territories, digging trenches along the border to stop their advance.

But over the weekend, they changed tactics and went on a full offensive after the fall of Shingal, which the Kurds had controlled since 2003.

In the fog of war, it remains unclear who else is involved in the fighting, with conflicting reports of gains and losses from all fronts.

The Iraqi government has apparently joined the fight over the past few days, with its air force daily pounding positions of the common enemy inside Mosul and near the Syrian border.

Although the collapsed Iraqi army has all but vanished, Baghdad still has an active air force with jet fighters and helicopter gunships; the Kurds have no air power, but they have a large Peshmerga force.

Yet it is hard to tell whose jets have been dropping the heavy bombs on the militants: Iraq claims responsibility, but others say it could be US fighters.

The Kurds have remained mum over Iraq’s role in the fighting. They have announced that their own forces are now armed with heavy weapons, but refuse to confirm reports of advanced weapons from abroad.

The IS has its own propaganda machinery at work. It has an active social media network that has been publishing online claims of taking new territories as well of pictures of their killings, spreading fear wherever they advance.

On the other hand, the Iraqi air force claims to be killing dozens of militants every day, and the Peshmerga say they are on the march into the heart of IS country.

Since the beginning of hostilities thousands of Kurds from inside Kurdistan and abroad have offered to join the Peshmerga forces in their fight. On Wednesday the Kurdish government gratefully turned down volunteers, saying the Peshmerga were able to handle the fighting.