Roj Bash Kurdistan

Back in September, Kurdish Peshmerga forces attacked the Islamic State-held village of Hassan Sham, just 30 kilometers from Mosul in northern Iraq. Six Pesh died in the fighting.

Three of them were from Syrian Kurdistan, two from Iraqi Kurdistan and one from Turkish Kurdistan. Their deaths in battle—and the way Kurdish forces returned their bodies to their families—illustrate the complexity of the Kurds’ anti-Islamic State coalition.

While pretty much all the various Kurdish factions are fighting Islamic State, they aren’t necessarily fighting Islamic State together. And one possible reason … is a chilling one.

Some Kurds have suggested that the regime of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, which has systematically oppressed Syrian Kurds, is now backing some Kurdish factions in Syria in order to open up an eastern front against Islamic State.

If true, Al Assad’s support could be driving a wedge between the Kurds, all of whom oppose Islamic State—and most of whom also oppose Al Assad.


The three Syrian Kurdish Peshmerga who died in Hassan Sham—Jomard Msho, Sulaiman Hamza Haji and Daleel Ahmad—first came to Iraqi Kurdistan as refugees from Syria’s three-year-old civil war.

The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government and the Kurdish National Council—the latter a Syrian entity—offered some of these refugees military training. The goal was to reinforce Syrian Kurdish fighters in their struggle against both Al Assad’s brutal regime and Islamic extremists.

But this new force was unable to enter to Syria from Iraq because of disagreements between the Kurdish National Council and another Syrian-Kurdish group, the People’s Council of Western Kurdistan.

The factions still hadn’t resolved their disagreements by the time Islamic State attacked Iraqi Kurdistan this summer. So the Syrian-Kurdish Peshmerga troops instead joined the KRG’s own Iraqi Peshmerga in battling the militant invaders.

Yes, it’s confusing.

Whole story and beautifuls pics here :

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/politi ... c2ef3897fd