Exclusive: Caught in Iraq’s shifting frontlines, alliances
© FRANCE 24
Video by
Selim EL MEDDEB ,
Adam PLETTS
Text by
FRANCE 24
Latest update : 2014-06-24
On the outskirts of the Kurdish-controlled northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, FRANCE 24’s Sélim El Meddeb and Adam Pletts got caught up in the fighting in a volatile region where different communities are protected by their own militias.
There’s a deceptive calm on the peshmerga (armed Kurdish fighters) defensive lines south of Kirkuk, where Kurdish troops are on the frontlines of the fight against Sunni militants allied with
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Great Syria, also known as ISIL).
These peshmerga troops under the command of the KRG (
Kurdistan Regional Government) have been maintaining a defensive line around
Kirkuk, which fell to Kurdish control earlier this month after the Iraqi army fled the city that has been at the heart of a political dispute between Iraq’s Arabs and Kurds.
At an hour-long, private
meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Kurdish President Massoud Barzani in the Kurdish capital of Arbil on Tuesday, Kerry said the peshmerga has been “really critical” in helping restrain the ISIS advance, according to US media reports.
On the southern outskirts of Kirkuk, peshmerga troops manning this defensive line stare out at ISIS positions within firing range over a waterway. Last week, six Kurdish fighters were killed there by jihadists.
“That's [the village of] Bashir, ISIS are there,” explains a peshmerga soldier, pointing into the distance. “And there is Shamsiya - jihadist forces are there, right in front of us. And these are our forces, deployed here.”
IRAQ’S TURKMEN TAKE UP ARMS AGAINST JIHADISTS
At a frontline peshmerga checkpoint just five kilometres from ISIS-controlled Bashir, troops say there’s fighting on a daily basis and that mortars were fired at their positions earlier this morning.
Right now though, it’s quiet on the frontline and not a single gunshot can be heard.
But on the way back, things get complicated as the FRANCE 24 team gets caught in a firefight. The convoy of Peshmerga Minister Sheikh Jaffar Mustafa, which happened to be using the same stretch of road, has come under attack.
“Heads down! Heads down!” yells a peshmerga soldier as the seasoned fighters provide cover for their comrades firing across the road. Reinforcements arrive quickly and a pitched fight proceeds until a peshmerga commander screams, “Stop, stop, those are our guys over there!”
The Kurdish regulars have captured several attackers and under covering fire, speed back to their base with their detainees.
But the detained men are not ISIS-allied Sunni jihadists – they turn out to be members of a local Turkmen militia.
Where do the Turkmen stand?
The Turkmen are Iraq’s third-largest ethnic group after Arabs and Kurds based mostly in northern Iraq, with historic and cultural links to Turkey. Comprised of Sunnis and Shiites, they are a key political force in the controversy surrounding the future status of northern Iraq.
Following the latest ISIS onslaught, there have been questions surrounding the Turkmen position amid reports that the community is divided in a country being ripped along ethnic and sectarian lines.
Once back at the base, Mustafa questions the Turkmen militia leader about the latest incident, which killed one Turkmen militia member and wounded two peshmerga soldiers.
The militiamen admit to firing first, saying they thought they were shooting at insurgents. “I don’t think they targeted me personally, but the convoy was attacked. I don’t think they knew that I was in the convoy,” explains Mustafa.
Whether it was a misunderstanding or deliberate attack, the peshmerga’s decisive response seems to have earned the Turkmens’ respect and cooperation – for the moment.
“From now on, there will be very good coordination. There will be no suspicions. We are brothers – there are no differences between us and I hope you all understand there is nothing to make a fuss about here,” says Abu Sajate, head of the Sahwa Turkmaniya militia to a group of uniformed, fearsome-looking peshmerga troops.
Even if it was the most serious incident of its kind, it’s by no means the first, and the Kurdish commander wants to restore order to his territory.
“The problem is that they are completely unorganised, they do not have uniforms, they all have different weapons and they have no real leader,” says Wasta Rasul, a peshmerga commander. “From now on, there’s no question of seeing them in the streets, at our backs. They should take charge of an area, that way, they will stay away from our forces.”
By seizing Kirkuk following the collapse of the Iraqi army, Iraq’s Kurds have achieved an old dream. But now they must prove they can hold the ground, which in the current chaos of Iraq, is often a shifting ground.
http://www.france24.com/en/20140624-video-iraq-kurds-peshmerga-turkmen-kirkuk-isis-fighting/
vid in link
......I'm done 
...
