Peshmerga are Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

Himanshu Gulati, a lawmaker for Norway from the country’s Progressive Party, has nominated the Kurdish Peshmerga forces to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. the nomination is attributed to the Peshmerga‘s efforts in fighting the Islamic State. In an interview with a local Norwegian newspaper, Gulati said, “The Peshmerga have been crucial to the fact we have […]

1st and 2nd Peshmerga Brigades re-unify for first time after Kirkuk fallout

A lot of stuff has transpired in Iraqi Kurdistan over the last few months and the turn over of Kirkuk to Iraqi forces has left the Peshmerga in disarray. Finally, two of the Peshmerga’s infantry brigades have officially been reunited as they were separated over 100 days ago when the offensive for Kirkuk began. 1st […]

Interview with an American YPG fighter: Straight Outta Raqqa

Kurt: Who are you and what’s your background besides YPG? Mitchell: Mitchell Clark — I have a pretty typical small town AmericanAmericanAmerican story. I grew up playing football and got really serious about it in high school. I was planning on going to college to play, but I had a severe shoulder injury that pretty […]

YPG foreign fighters arrive in Afrin to fight Turkey

When the battle for Raqqa concluded, many of the foreign fighters that had inserted themselves into the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ranks, primarily into the Kurdish YPG, returned home as the Islamic State in caliphate form was no more. Now, as Turkey attacks the Kurdish held city of Afrin, it seems the remaining few have emerged […]

Kurdish PM refuses to send Peshmerga to defend Afrin

In a recent interview, Kurdish prime minister of the KDP (Kurdish Diplomatic Party) and former president Masoud Barzani said, “The deployment of the Peshmerga to help their fellow Kurds in Afrin against Turkey’s military operation will not help solve the problem.” The conflict in Afrin has stirred up a lot of sympathy and support for […]

Beards, tattoos and tactical pants: My first SHOT Show

I follow our small team of writers up an escalator and onto the plaza floor that holds one of the many levels for SHOT Show. It’s a sea of booths filled with the latest in “tactical innovations” that the industry has to offer. Weaving around each other like a massive army of ants, are the […]

Trump tells Erdogan to curb Turkey’s Afrin offensive in Syria

U.S. President Donald Trump told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to curtail his country’s military operations in Syria’s Afrin and avoid risk of conflict with American forces, the White House said. In a phone call on Wednesday, “President Trump relayed concerns that escalating violence in Afrin, Syria, risks undercutting our shared goals in Syria,” the […]

Iraq declares it has no knowledge of missing Peshmerga

A member of the Iraqi parliament has stated that it does not known the whereabouts of the many Peshmerga soldiers who have disappeared during the Islamic State conflict and that they are not being held in Iraqi prisons. Shakhawan Abdullah, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s council for security and defense, has denied accusations that […]

Iraqi government commits $380 million for KRG salaries

Iraq’s Central Bank has started a new account for the Kurdish Regional Government to pull its government wages from; a total of 450 billion dinars was deposited in to it according to documents recently made public by Iraqi government officials. According to a letter sent to the Ministry of Finance for Iraq, the account was […]

Turkey shells Afrin as it awaits removal of Russian military observers

Turkey shelled Afrin on Friday amid reports Russian military observers were withdrawing from the Syrian-Kurd canton, in a move that would allow Turkish forces to launch a ground assault on Kurdish militants. Russia has based military observers in Afrin since 2015, and the subject of their removal was part of negotiations between Turkey and Russia […]

US/SDF lead Kurdish border guard receives backlash

As we see the Islamic State‘s caliphate collapsing in the Middle East, the US-led coalition is planning to improve border security in northern Syria. The plan as of now is to equip the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) for this role, a Kurdish-led umbrella force for an alliance of sub groups in the region. Because the […]

Syria threatens to shoot down Turkish jets amid border tensions

The Syrian government warned Thursday that it would shoot down any Turkish jets carrying out strikes inside the country, following threats from Ankara to launch full-scale attacks on Kurdish areas in northern Syria. Tensions have escalated after the U.S. military announced plans to turn its Syrian Kurdish allies in the war against Islamic State into a […]