Peshmerga

A inside look at the crazy foreign volunteers who fight ISIS

The heavily armed fighters peered out of a broken second-story window at their outpost in a crumbling house on the western edge of this shell-shocked city, where Islamic State is fighting a furious battle to hold on to the capital of its self-declared caliphate. They ducked to avoid snipers camped in nearby high-rise apartments. Armed drones hovered […]

My alternative knife concealment method

I often find myself in countries where I either cannot obtain a handgun or I am not permitted to carry one outside of a military capacity. The alternative to this is a concealed knife, preferably a fixed blade but on occasion a folding knife. A knife can be procured almost anywhere and while not a […]

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 […]

Watch: The real, ‘ISIS Hunting Club’ – More than a trendy patch

The ISIS Hunting Club: Kurds Hunting Daesh Taking Daesh (ISIS,) down in the Middle East means less attacks on Western soil. If they control less territory, then they have less income. Which means less funds for terrorist attacks abroad. After battles like Kobane, a lot of their capable fighters have died and there are more and more […]

German military flew nearly 700 missions against ‘Islamic State’ in 2016

The Bundeswehr has flown hundreds of reconnaissance missions in Syria and Iraq since January as part of its contribution to the international efforts against the so-called “Islamic State” (IS), according to figures from its operational command center circulated on Wednesday by news agency dpa. Beginning early last year, Germany had supported coalition airstrikes against IS in the two […]

Phil Campion, former British SAS weighs in on the battle for Mosul

I can’t believe that it was just over a year ago that I was on frontline against Islamic State in both Syria and northern Iraq making a documentary (Fighting IS: Big Phil’s War) that was shown on Sky Atlantic. I’ll be telling a few more stories from that trip but this week. For now I […]

In depth look at the tactics and strategy of guerrilla tunneling

Tunneling underground is a tried and true tactic of the guerrilla fighter, one that has become especially prevalent amongst those facing Western air power which they simply cannot match.  By the same token, it has also been argued that the suicide bomber is another tactic which the guerrilla, or terrorist rather, uses to a militarily superior […]

Battle for Mosul: How ISIS Is Fighting to Keep Its Iraqi Stronghold

Just over a week into the battle for Mosul, and the vast coalition seeking to oust ISIS from Iraq’s second city is making swifter than expected progress. But for all its gains — 78 villages liberated, and nearly 800 ISIS fighters killed as of Monday morning — the Iraqi coalition is encountering fierce resistance from […]

Kurdish sources describe dangerous underground warfare near Mosul

SOFREP reached out to several sources on the ground near Mosul, including a Kurdish intelligence officer involved in the battle against ISIS for Iraq’s second largest city. Predominately a Sunni city, Mosul was the home to about a million residents, after nearly half a million fled when ISIS took over in 2014. During Operation Iraqi […]