Kurdistan

Turkey extends troop deployment mandate, pressures Iraqi Kurds on vote

Turkey’s parliament voted on Saturday to extend by a year a mandate authorising the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria, stepping up pressure against an independence referendum in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region in two days’ time. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Turkey would take security, economic and political steps in response to the […]

Watch: American Peshmerga’s designated marksmanship rifle

The designated marksmanship rifle has a unique role to fill in combat. While it can never fill the role of a sniper rifle it is designed for on demand accuracy. Primarily used as a mid range precision weapon, the DMR allows the end-user to eliminate enemy personnel on a squad level while his colleagues deal […]

Watch: American Peshmerga fighters train in close quarters shooting

It’s important to maintain your marksmanship skills; it’s a perishable skill set, so it if you don’t stay on top of it your group quality drops off faster than you’d think. While shooting at longer distances is invaluable and arguably more important in the long run, given most rifle fights happen at an average of […]

Turkey prepared for possible fight with YPG in Syria

Set amid an increasingly violent environment of confrontation between Syrian Kurds and the Turkish government, Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan has been upping the rhetoric against his Kurdish enemies in Syria, much to the delight of his political base at home. Speaking at a rally over the weekend, Erdogan said “We will take important steps to […]

That one time the Peshmerga arrested the police

It was early 2016 and I was providing routine infantry training for the Peshmerga of 3rd Brigade at a base near the city of Sulaymania in Iraqi Kurdistan. I remember we had just finished out the day at the range with some fire and maneuver drills; I sat down with a cup of chai in […]

Syrian Kurds will look to connect territory to Mediterranean after fall of Raqqa

Kurdish fighters in Northern Syria have revealed plans to extend their gains across northern Syria by establishing a trade route to the Mediterranean Sea, in a move that would almost certainly be opposed from the outset by Turkey, the Guardian reports. U.S. support for the Kurds fighting in Syria against the Islamic State and Assad […]

Senior aide to Turkish President Erdogan threatens U.S. forces in Syria

An aide to Turkish president Recep Erdogan told a radio show that the U.S. soldiers in northern Syria are not safe from Turkish bombs, saying “we won’t be considering the fact that there are armored American vehicles… all of a sudden, by accident, a few rockets can hit them.” His comments come as a politically […]

He fought with Russian-backed militants in Ukraine. Now he’s a U.S. soldier.

A prominent militant who fought with Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine and participated in far-right European politics recently completed U.S. Army training and is serving in an American infantry division in Hawaii, according to Army and other records. Guillaume Cuvelier, 29, shipped for basic training in January and graduated as an infantryman at Fort Benning, Ga., the […]

Turkish jets strike Kurdish fighters in Syria, Iraq’s Sinjar

Turkish planes bombed Kurdish fighters in Iraq’s Sinjar region and northeast Syria on Tuesday, killing at least 20 in a widening campaign against groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party. A Turkish military statement said around 70 militants were killed in the operations inside the two neighboring states. The air strikes in Syria targeted […]

Syria movie to be made based on dubious Rolling Stone article

Things have apparently changed quite a bit since my first trip to Syria.  When I got there in 2014, the war was still young and Kurdish held Syria (called Rojava) had not yet been saturated by hipster journalists looking for a scoop.  While there, I met the first wave of foreign volunteers.  There were former […]