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The Peshmerga: Capabilities, Challenges
and the Future of Kurdistan’s Guardians
17.6.2012
By Christian Chung, Rudaw |
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At the Battalion Base in Qara Henjir, Kurdistan
region, a group of soldiers are in formation for
military training. Photo: Rudaw
June 17, 2012
QARA HENJIR,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Kurdistan Region—As
the formation of Peshmergas marched in the
blistering heat of Qara Henjir, a rural town in the
north of Kirkuk city, the unit’s officers looked on
with pride. The dedication of the soldiers deployed
to the battalion’s small headquarters was evident in
the myriad of personal vehicles driven to the
outpost to report for duty, with some soldiers
coming from as far away as Duhok and Erbil.
Perhaps a testament to their years of guerrilla
fighting in the rugged mountains of northern Iraq
through the 1970s and 80s, the officers are quick to
point out that what the Peshmerga lacks in equipment
and money, they make up for in morale, espirit de
corps, and a “never-give-up ”fighting spirit. The
battalion at Qara Henjir, part of the “Golden Lion
Task Force” comprised of army and security forces in
Kirkuk, seemed to embody this in their daily
operations and rigorous training schedule.
“We train for three hours a day, seven days a week,”
Major Qadim Fares, chief trainer of the battalion,
said. “The first hour is exercises and warm up, the
second is routine military training, followed by the
third hour of weapons training. It is an intense
schedule developed by the American and Iraqi
forces.”
Indeed, few institutions can match the widespread
respect Iraqi Kurds have for the Peshmerga, the
military force of the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG). The force has been an integral part of the
Kurdish nationalist quest since its earliest days.
“I have the utmost admiration for our guardians, the
Peshmerga. They have protected all people, not only
Kurds, but Arabs, Christians and Turkmen too, even
when the world abandoned us,” declared Mohammed
Sirabi, whose family was killed during Saddam
Hussein’s genocidal Anfal Campaign against the Kurds
in the late 1980s.
The ability of the Peshmerga to maintain this high
level of respect and independence will be tested in
the coming months, however, as the KRG tries to
integrate some 80,000 Peshmerga forces from the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) into Ministry of Peshmerga in
Erbil.
“Unification is a continuous process, of course. But
the problem is slow because of technical issues;
every time we complete a phase of the integration of
our forces, it comes at four battalions at a time,www.ekurd.net
and those battalions need equipment, weapons,
training centers, and other items that we are
lacking due to our small budget and the holding up
of resources by Baghdad,” says General Jabar Yawar,
chief of staff and spokesman for the Ministry of
Peshmerga. “This takes a lot of time, but the
process is continuing.”
Privately, some activists and civil society leaders
believe that the development of the Peshmerga forces
through the integration process is at a crossroad,
leaving many to question what role the force will
play in the future political landscape of Iraq and
Kurdistan.
“Will the Peshmerga continue to be a tool of the
political parties, or will they fully
professionalize into an independent institution that
will remain largely uninfluenced by the wrangling of
the political leaders from all the parties?”
questions one political activist, who wished to
remain anonymous. “I think the US military is a good
example: yes, it is affected by politics like all
armed forces, but it does not take orders from the
Democrats or Republicans. It takes orders from the
state institutions. That is where we must head, and
we are at a juncture for this today.”
Colonel Abdul Sherko, Commander of the battalion at
Qara Henjir, disagree with that characterization. “I
respect these opinions, but we are not a political
force. The Peshmerga is a fully professional force.
Our mission is to provide security to the people of
Iraq, regardless of their ethnicity.”
Unlikely Origins
The origins of the Peshmerga stretch back to 1890s,
when groups of Kurdish tribal forces were organized
mainly for local defense and guarding the borders.
An early version of the Peshmerga developed after
the First World War when Malik Mahmoud declared
himself the King of Kurdistan and fought the British
forces in Iraq to gain independence for Kurdistan.
The focus of the Peshmerga evolved from local
tribal-based defense, to a political force aimed at
resisting the rule of the Iraqi government. With a
particular expertise in guerrilla warfare, Peshmerga
fighters ambushed and attacked the Iraqi army from
their mountain bases.
The Anfal campaign against the Kurdish people in the
late 1980s, the killing and disappearance of tens of
thousands of Kurdish villagers were attempts by the
Iraqi regime to cut the Peshmerga forces off their
local support.
The US-led invasion in 2003, known as Operation
Iraqi Freedom, saw close cooperation between US
Special Forces and the Peshmerga, and built a
relationship that remains to date. Prior to the
invasion, the Peshmerga provided intelligence to the
US about al Qaeda activities in Iraq.
“Without a doubt, al Qaeda was in Iraq before the
invasion and had a working relationship with the
Iraqi government,” says General Yawar. “According to
our intelligence, there was a very good relationship
with the Iraqi Army and members of Ansar al-Islam
and al-Qaeda groups working in Kurdistan. Before the
war, of course the KRG exchanged information and
intelligence with the US.”
The two forces executed a joint land operation,
supported by US air strikes, to drive out the
Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, which controlled the
Hawraman region near Halabja.
Cooperation Despite
Political Tension
Today, the Peshmerga hold training exercises and
execute joint operations with the Iraqi army, the
same establishment that sparked the creation of the
original Peshmerga forces. Today, the Iraqi army and
the Peshmarga are responsible for security in
different parts of Kirkuk, Nineveh and Diyala
provinces.
“We are very much interested in participating in
operations and training with the Iraqi forces,” says
Major Fares, the battalion training chief. “For
example, I myself have gone to training courses with
the army in Kirkuk and other areas before. And
[Iraqi officers] in turn send men to Erbil and
Sulaimani for training as well.”
Major Fares says his men sent for training in Kirkuk
and Sulaimani have reported very positive
experiences working with their Iraqi Army
counterparts.
But there have been times, the latest in 2008, when
Iraqi and Peshmerga forces have come close to
clashes, mainly in the disputes territories of
Diyala province.
“One case where conflict was imminent was near the
city of Khanaqin, and a few other towns in the
disputed areas, a few years ago,” says General
Mohammed Salar, the Chief of Logistics and
Administration for the Ministry of Peshmerga. “[The
Iraqi Army] said officially that they were
initiating operations against terrorist elements,
but really there weren’t any terrorist networks, and
the aim was to push the Peshmerga forces back. They
wanted to take Khanaqin, for instance, but we didn’t
let them.”
The sustainability of this cooperative relationship
is questionable, however, as tensions between the
KRG and the central government in Baghdad rise to
levels not seen since before the liberation of Iraq
in 2003. The tension is often between politicians
over the country’s oil and gas law, implementation
of Iraq’s constitution and Article 140, but it
reflects on the day-to-day relationship between the
Peshmerga and Iraqi soldiers on the ground.
“We should have a strong relationship with the
Ministry of Defense in Baghdad,” noted General Salar,
“In reality, our relations are weak and strained
right now, going back to the unfulfilled pledges of
the government to support us. So far, they haven’t
given one cent.”
A Question of Resources
The deteriorating political relationship between
Erbil and Baghdad is affecting the future viability
of the Peshmerga forces. The constitutional status
of the Peshmerga as a force within the overall
defense structure of Iraq requires that most of the
financing, resources, and foreign assistance meant
for the Peshmerga must first be allocated by the
central government in Baghdad, as opposed to being
managed directly by the KRG in Erbil.
Peshmerga and KRG officials in Erbil say that the
funding have not been provided by the central
government for a number of months, an indication of
the worsening relationship between the Ministry of
Peshmerga and the Ministry of Defense in Baghdad.
This, they claim, is the primary challenge to the
growth and professionalization of the Kurdish
forces, a process made even more difficult following
the complete withdrawal of US forces at the end of
2011.
The unification process for the Ministry of
Peshmerga began late, in 2010. Today, the Ministry
in Erbil serves as the single headquarters for the
newly reorganized Peshmerga forces of the Kurdistan
Region.
There are currently 12 unified infantry battalions,
each with approximately 3,000 Peshmerga fighters, as
well as special forces battalions, heavy weapons
battalions, headquarters and Ministry staff, and
other support units, for a total force of
approximately 120,000 soldiers.
The goal of the Ministry over the next five years is
to grow the number of infantry battalions from 12 to
20, with a total of 90,000 active duty soldiers and
30,000 reserve forces. Significant political,
financial, and resource issues remain in the way of
this goal, however.
Regarding the capability of each infantry battalion,
General Salar is blunt about the logistical
challenges faced by the Peshmerga. “To be honest
with you, we mainly only have the capability of
Kalashnikov [rifles] within each battalion. And
those are from the 80s and 90s when we captured them
from Saddam, and some might not even shoot. But we
believe in ourselves. That’s the most important
thing.”
At the tactical level, there’s a similar picture.
“The greatest need we have is the upgrading of our
weapons,” Major Fares says. “The only thing we have
received from [the central government in] Baghdad is
a small number of rifles, but most all of our other
equipment we had from before the invasion.”
“For example, that guy there,” Fares continued,
pointing to a soldier standing guard at the door to
the training office. “He has brought his own
personal weapon, his own personal supplies, to come
and work with me.”
View from the Field
The Golden Lion Battalion at Qara Henjir is a
microcosm of the efforts of professionalization of
the Peshmerga currently underway. The past five
years has brought growth, as well as significant
challenges, to the unit’s small command outpost in
Qara Henjir.
The base contains a number of small buildings and
makeshift trailers, each housing a different
department: operations, administration,
intelligence, logistics, and the command element.
The outpost has undergone major development since
its establishment in 2003, starting with no
permanent structures or paved road, and today
serving as the headquarters for a 3,000 strong
combat battalion, complete with a helicopter landing
area and paved roads inside its walled compound.
Though lack of weapons, resources, and funding is a
serious issue, it does not appear to have affected
the ability of the Peshmerga to maintain security in
their areas of responsibility.
“The primary mission of my battalion is to provide
security to the city and people of Kirkuk,” says
Colonel Sherko. “I can proudly say that the safest
area in the north is the area under our protection.
We prevented this area from being a safe-haven for
terrorist elements, and it is 100% secure. The least
amount of attacks occur in the north of the city,
statistically. Since 2003 the central government has
not provided a penny to Peshmerga forces, but we are
still more than capable of performing our tasks.”
General Salar recalls more difficult times in the
past. “The situation will never be as bad as
Baghdad. Before, even though we never had a lot of
resources, we have always maintained the security of
the Kurdistan region.”
Major Fares believes the identity and spirit of the
Peshmarga hasn’t changed since its early days.
“Just to give you a better idea of what the
Peshmerga is about: the Peshmerga is a voluntary
army. It used to be people joined the forces
bringing their own weapons, vehicles, and other
supplies,” he says. “Today, nothing has changed that
much.”
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