The Kurds desperately need an influx of arms and supplies in order to be able to continue to hold their 600-mile long border against ISIS attacks. The need for weapons has only increased over the past months as the militant group has effectively plundered Iraqi military bases after overrunning cities, Yaroslav Trofimov reports from Kurdish-controlled areas for The Wall Street Journal.
"Peshmerga ammunition stocks are running low and whatever heavy weapons they have are mostly of Saddam Hussein-era vintage," Trofimov reports, citing Peshmerga commanders.
Currently, Kurdish lines throughout Iraq consist of defenses manned by Peshmerga troops armed with outdated weapons with dwindling supplies of ammunition.
| I think they're going to have to borrow a page from ISIS and raid Iraqi Army armories... |
The risk of the Peshmerga being overwhelmed by a similar scenario is likely given that the Kurds lack proper supplies. The US does not directly arm the Kurds: All supplies are routed through the central government in Baghdad, which has been reticent to provide the Peshmerga with all the arms the group may need over fears that Kurdistan may eventually push for independence.
This lack of direct aid has forced the Kurds to lobby the EU directly for medical aid, funding, and military support. On the ground, Kurdish commanders complained to The Journal that each loss the Iraqi military suffers directly aids ISIS and further empowers them against the Peshmerga.
"[ISIS] target us with weapons that were abandoned in Ramadi," Mustafa Sayid Qadir, the minister of Peshmerga affairs, told The Journal. "Wouldn’t it have been better if the Iraqi army had given them to us instead of giving them to ISIS?” |