A Kurdish Peshmerga commander of the infamous 9th Brigade based out of Daquq, a city just south of Kirkuk released a statement today via his Facebook page addressing his English speaking followers,

“At this time no more volunteers will be accepted into the 9th Brigade. The volunteers currently on staff are the final volunteers to the unit. Those seeking to volunteer with Peshmerga must work with the Kurdish Regional Government directly. This is in line with the policies of the entire Peshmerga Military in compliance with the wishes of the Kurdish Regional Government. Any person in violation will be subject to removal from the country and may face prosecution or arrest. Any previous volunteers are not excepted to this and have no special privilege to return.
I WISH ALL THAT HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE best wishes.
It was a pleasure to serve with us and help the Kurdish people. We thank you its a honor for us.
But due to the fact of bad people coming to get money and Famous.
It has shown us that all of these military professionals were only here for themselves.
But we have had a few great soldiers for KURDISTAN.
But we have GOOD People that are serving now and were and are true brothers and heros to us
But thank you to everyone for your service. But be safe and happy.”

– Col. Tariq Ahmed Jaff

9th Brigade was the unit the Fraudulent Qalubna Ma’kum team was formed under and headed by Kat Argo as well as the unit Michael Windecker “The Necromancer,” a convicted sex offender, served in. The unit has had its share of drama and bad eggs under it; mostly because it had little to no vetting process in place to determine if the people showing up were of upstanding character or even qualified to conduct military operations as some of its volunteers had zero military service in their backgrounds. In the end it became a place where the volunteer refuse, with the exception of a few good ones of course, were funneled to sit around until they decided to go home.

With the war coming to an end in Iraq and Peshmerga holding their ground allowing the Iraqi Army to finish up the last of ISIS it was bound to happen, the Peshmerga no longer seek foreign volunteers it seems. With the exception of a few still in country I believe we are watching the end of an era so to speak. I’ll be moving on as well soon; but man, has it been an awesome ride filled with once-in-a-lifetime-experiences.