Peshmerga 'ready' to advance on IS
Fighting continues between the peshmerga forces and the Islamic State, but the two sides seem to be in a holding pattern as the Peshmerga await commands from Baghdad and coordination with the United States to advance.
The military conflict between the peshmerga and the Islamic State has run hot since 2014 but is currently at somewhat of a standstill. The fighting is less frequent and intense than in prior months throughout the front in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, due to pressure from both the central government in Baghdad and the United States and its allies. The two are demanding the peshmerga forces hold off on moving up on the front until an impending Iraqi government-led offensive is ready to come to fruition, according to Peshmerga sources.
At present, fighting between peshmerga forces and IS continues throughout Iraqi Kurdistan. “We have a line 1,050 kilometers [642 miles] in length. There is fighting along this line. [During the week of July 27] IS advanced, but the peshmerga repelled them,” Brig. Gen. Helgurd Hikmet Mela Ali told Al-Monitor in his Erbil office. Ali, the general director of the Ministry of Peshmerga-General Directorate of Media went on, “There is fire back and forth, but now it is calm; there isn’t fierce fighting.”
