ZUMAR, Iraq — Standing on a hilltop, Gen. Halgurd Khidir is inspecting through binoculars the situation just a couple of miles farther down in the sea of concrete houses that is Zumar. He appears relaxed, but is keenly aware of the difficult mission his troops are entrusted with: retaking vast territories lost to Islamic State (IS) fighters in early August.
“Over the past month we have advanced a lot and have cleaned this area from IS,” said Khidir, standing amid a couple of dozen peshmerga fighters. He says his troops are ready to retake the town whenever the order arrives. The Kurdish peshmerga forces have in fact captured around a dozen villages and strategic oil fields on the road between Sihela and Zumar. Signs of IS militants’ defeat can be seen: A few damaged vehicles, including a Humvee bombed by US aircraft, are scattered by the side of the road.
Zumar and its nearby oil wells appeared firmly under peshmerga control until early August. But then in a lightning strike, IS forces swept through Zumar on Aug. 2 and Sinjar a day after. It was a defeat as much surprising as damaging for the Kurdish peshmerga forces’ image. When the Iraqi army was routed by militants in June, the peshmerga boasted that they were a different army and could keep the jihadists in check. They clearly underestimated the militants’ power.
The fall of Sinjar and Zumar and the strategic areas near Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital, Erbil, drove a painful point home to Kurdish leaders and the population alike: that the structure and capabilities of the peshmerga needed an urgent revision.
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