Iraq offers air support to Kurdish Peshmerga to combat Sunni militants

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, ordered the air force to provide support to Kurdish forces combating Sunni Militants, reports the BBC.

Iraq’s army spokesman, Qassem Atta in a statement on Monday, said,

“The  commander in chief of the armed forces has issued orders to the leadership of the air force and the army’s aviation units to provide air support to Peshmerga forces."

The announcement comes as the two towns of Sinjar and Zumar were captured by the Sunni militants over the weekend. The UN warned that as a result the safety of thousands of Iraq’s Yazidi community.

“The situation is quite dramatic. We have increasing reports of people who have no access to drinking water, not to speak of food or lack of medication,” said the UN special envoy to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov.

The Peshmerga, known for their devout commitment to the Kurdish nationalist cause and regarded as well-trained, well-armed and capable, are the military vanguard of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination. The term Peshmerga translates to ‘those who follow death.’

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.

Restricted HTML

  • You can align images (data-align="center"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • You can caption images (data-caption="Text"), but also videos, blockquotes, and so on.
  • Global and entity tokens are replaced with their values. Browse available tokens.
  • You can embed media items (using the <drupal-media> tag).

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

link button