Peshmerga: On the Frontline in the Middle East

In the year since Islamic State tore through Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate straddling the border with Syria, the Kurds have emerged as a lead actor in the global war against the extremist group and an important partner in the campaign to “degrade and destroy” it. However, the story of the Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga — literally “those who confront death” — is yet to be told. This book seeks to establish who these men are, and what has motivated them to lay down their lives in one abortive revolt after another over the past century. It will trace the peshmerga’s ongoing and far from complete evolution from a rag-tag guerrilla force into a regular army. From their early beginnings in the short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad to the current standoff with Islamic State, the peshmerga have come to embody the Kurdish nationalist struggle in Iraq and beyond.