The Kurds Want 'Heavy Weapons' From The U.S.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on the outskirts of Mosul. Photograph: Reuters

The Guardian: Kurdish Peshmerga call for heavy weaponry to take their fight to Isis

Fighters deride western fears that sending them weapons could give real impetus to frequent talk of sovereignty at the expense of Iraq

From his perch behind sandbags on a last approach towards Mosul, Captain Ibrahim of the Kurdish Peshmerga lives and breathes his enemy.

Down the hill, around a mile across an open plain, Islamic State (Isis) gunmen hide in a partly-ruined village. At least a half dozen times a day, they drive a flatbed truck from a hiding spot and send a large mortar arcing towards the Kurds.

“They’re good,” Ibrahim said with a wince, seconds after a shell thumped into the dirt just outside his outpost. “They’re very good. The Iraqis have taught them well.”

WNU Editor: The Turks, Iran, and Iraq do not want to see a Kurdish population heavily armed .... this is the reason why the U.S. has not and will not arm the Kurds with such heavy weapons.