Iraqi Kurds fight Islamic State with antiquated weapons
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters armed with decades-old weapons are facing Islamic State jihadists using moden American weapons captured from the Syrian Army
The exhausted Kurdish fighters leaned against a pair of antiquated green cannons on a hill overlooking this northern Iraqi village, the ground around them littered with shrapnel from fierce battles with Islamic State militants.
One of them, Moustafa Saleh, tapped the cannon with his mud-caked boots. “Russian-made,” he said, with a smirk. “My grandfather used the same one.”
Iraqi Kurdish fighters on the front lines of battle say they have yet to receive the heavy weapons and training pledged by the United States and nearly a dozen other countries to help them push back the Sunni militants.
US-led airstrikes have forced the militants to retreat or go into hiding in towns and villages across northern Iraq, paving the way for ground forces to retake territory seized by the militant group in its rapid advance since June across western and northern Iraq.
“We could retake the hospital so easily if we had the right rockets.”
But without more sophisticated weaponry, the Kurdish fighters, known as peshmerga, have had to rely on ageing arms like the Soviet-era cannons, a centrepiece of the offensive on Tuesday to retake Mahmoudiyah and the nearby strategic towns of Rabia and Zumar.