ERBIL, Iraq — Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces have seized most of the borders that divide the landlocked Kurds between Iraq and Syria, with increasing public support from both sides of the border. Kurds in several cities in Syria rallied in support of the Kurdish fighters that are engaging the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) both in Syria and Iraq, but unity between rival Kurdish parties is no guarantee.
Peshmerga forces affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani secured most of the Iraqi-Syrian border areas of the province of Mosul on June 10 after the fall of the city to ISIS.