Friday, June 5, 2015

Kurdish Forces Starting To Panic Over Dwindling Ammo Supplies And Heavy Weapons

Lt. Jamal Derwish, pointing in center, commands the last outpost of Kurdish Peshmerga forces before Islamic-State controlled territory in Dabbis, Kirkuk province in Iraq. Photo: Yaroslav Trofimov/The Wall Street Journal

Business Insider: The Kurds are starting to panic in the war against ISIS

The Kurds desperately need an influx of arms and supplies in order to be able to continue to hold their 600-mile long border against ISIS attacks.

The need for weapons has only increased over the past months as the militant group has effectively plundered Iraqi military bases after overrunning cities, Yaroslav Trofimov reports from Kurdish-controlled areas for The Wall Street Journal.

"Peshmerga ammunition stocks are running low and whatever heavy weapons they have are mostly of Saddam Hussein-era vintage," Trofimov reports, citing Peshmerga commanders.

Update: Kurdish Peshmerga Say They Need Weapons After ISIS Seizes Iraqi Arsenal -- WSJ

WNU Editor: They have proven to be the most capable and motivated fighters against the Islamic State .... but they do not hold sway where it counts .... Washington. My prediction .... the Kurds better start looking for another source of weapons and ammo because the Americans are not going to supply them.

Update: Money seems to be the Kurds biggest problem .... Oil Agreement Central To Iraq's Unity In ISIS Fight May Be Crumbling (Huffington Post).

2 comments:

Bob Huntley said...

Take them away from the Iraqis. Shouldn't be hard and the US will replace them for the Iraqis to be taken away again.

Jay Farquharson said...

WNU Editor,

Like most things in Iraq, nothing is simple.

The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmurga consists of an awkward alliance of the two largest Iraqi Kurdish Militia's, the KDP and the PUK. When the West re- armed these two groups post Gulf War, they most infamously used the arms and ammo in the Kurdish Civil War, which only ended when the KDP cut a deal with Saddam, and the Iraqi Army intervened, forcing the PUK to the negotiating table.

Since the start of the Iraq War, the Iraqi Kurds have been "demanding" more and better weapons, but both Iraq and the U.S. Are hesitant to arm them. Both the U.S. And Iraq are well aware that the Iraqi Kurds have little interest in Iraq, in cooperating with the Iraqi Army, and primariay want the weapons to ensure the Independence of Kurdish Iraq.

Even in the fight against ISIS, the Iraqi Kurdish Peshmurga has little interest in fighting outside of Kurdish Iraq, and little interest in aiding the Syrian Kurdish Militias, the YPG and the PPK, who are willing to take the fight across the north of the Sunni areas to connect the Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish enclaves.