Will arming Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces tip the balance of power in Iraq?

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This might do it since the Kurds are ferocious fighters.

Will arming Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces tip the balance of power in Iraq?

Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Photo: AFP •See Related Articles October 9, 2014 ERBIL-Hewlêr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— The Kurds have received unprecedented amounts of foreign arms since Islamic State (IS) fighters entered Kurdish areas adjacent to the borders of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. Violent confrontations have shown the Peshmerga’s impotence in dealing with such large-scale security challenges. IS was able to obtain advanced and modern military munitions by capturing American weapons from Iraqi government forces in the cities of Mosul, Tikrit and Ramadi. Peshmerga forces, on the other hand, carry old weapons, some of which date back to the time of the Soviet Union. In a statement to Al-Hayat, a high-ranking general in the Peshmerga forces said, “We cannot depend upon the weapons we have. For that reason. confronting IS means sending Kurdish troops to their deaths because of the ineffectiveness of their weapons. … The ammunition Kurdish soldiers carry is very old, and some of it no longer works.” Continue reading at: Will arming Kurdistan s Peshmerga forces tip the balance of power inIraq

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Peshmerga goin' after ISIS in Syria...

Iraqi Kurdish forces enter Syria to fight Islamic State
Thu Oct 30, 2014 ) - A first group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters entered the besieged Syrian town of Kobani on Thursday to help push back Islamic State militants who have defied U.S. air strikes and threatened to massacre its Kurdish defenders.

Kobani, on the border with Turkey, has been encircled by the Sunni Muslim insurgents for more than 40 days. Weeks of U.S.-led air strikes have failed to break their stranglehold, and Kurds are hoping the arrival of the peshmerga will turn the tide. The siege of Kobani -- known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab -- has become a test of the U.S.-led coalition's ability to stop Islamic State's advance, and Washington has welcomed the peshmerga's deployment. It has intensified its air strikes in the past two days ahead of their arrival.

A first contingent of about 10 peshmerga fighters arrived in Kobani from Turkey to prepare the way for a convoy equipped with heavy weapons, but gunfire and shelling by Islamic State fighters on the border area appeared to be causing delays. "ISIL has intensified its attacks on the border gate after the news of the peshmerga's arrival ... and the clashes have been fierce," Idris Nassan, deputy foreign minister of Kobani district, told Reuters by telephone from Kobani.

The peshmerga fighters already in Kobani were trying to secure safe passage for the weapons convoy and the Turkish authorities, fearing a spillover onto Turkish soil, also wanted them to wait until the security situation was clearer, he said. "With the ISIL shelling and the clashes, the whole process is taking time," Nassan said. Hemin Hawrami, a senior official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Iraq, wrote on Twitter that the peshmerga already in Kobani were assessing where the heavy weapons would be deployed.

Around 100 peshmerga fighters arrived by plane in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, joined later that night by a land convoy of vehicles carrying arms including a cannon and truck-mounted machine guns. In a compound protected by Turkish security forces near the border town of Suruc, the fighters were donning combat fatigues and preparing their weapons, a Reuters correspondent said. U.S. forces stepped up air strikes on Islamic State positions in an apparent bid to help clear the way for the peshmerga. U.S. Central Command said there had been 10 strikes near Kobani since Wednesday, hitting two small insurgent units and destroying seven fighting positions and five buildings.

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