As economic crisis continues, will Kurdish peshmerga desert?
The situation of the peshmerga forces in Iraq's Kurdistan Region is precarious in the absence of coordination with the Iraqi government and the economic crisis that has left them long unpaid.
KIRKUK, Iraq — An unexpected shot rang out as a peshmerga officer pointed over sandbags at a black Islamic State flag in the distance.
“Just shooting at a bird,” he said, swiveling around to see what the other men were doing below, near a cluster of deserted mud and brick homes in the closed military zone on the wide, oil-rich plains of northern Iraq. He said that the other soldiers seen on the way to the front line wandering around abandoned, heavily damaged villages had been looking for firewood for warmth on that February night.
