http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-the-kurds-strike-back--army-retakes-control-of-oil-refinery-town-as-kurds-stand-firm-against-overstretched-isis-9862538.html
Isis: the Kurds strike back - Army retakes control of oil refinery
town as Kurds stand firm against overstretched Isis
Patrick Cockburn reports from Makhmour, the Iraqi town where the tide
may finally be turning in the war against the self-styled Islamic
State
Patrick Cockburn Author Biography
Friday 14 November 2014
Iraqi forces have recaptured the refinery town of Baiji and broken the
siege of the giant oil refinery nearby, say officials in Baghdad - in
the most important success for the Iraqi government since Isis seized
a third of Iraq in June.
Isis fighters, after their spectacular victories in Iraq and Syria
over the summer, are overstretched as they seek to extend or defend
the vast territories they have seized. A Kurdish general, Najat Ali,
commanding Peshmerga soldiers in the town of Makhmour, 50 miles north
of Baiji, said yesterday that "Isis has big administrative problems in
supplying food and ammunition to its forces in the front line".
Makhmour, a Kurdish town of 12,000 people, lies just to the east of
the Tigris River and was briefly captured by Isis, which calls itself
Islamic State, in its offensive in August that led to the start of US
air strikes. It too is back in Kurdish hands.
A shattered 120mm artillery piece, captured by Isis from the Iraqi
army but later destroyed by US bombers, lies abandoned near the town's
main grain silo. Kurds were shocked and frightened at the time by the
speed with which Isis columns defeated the Peshmerga in blitzkrieg
attacks and came close to capturing the Kurdish capital Irbil, which
is only 45 minutes' drive from Mahkmour.
Read more: UN investigators accuse Isis of crimes against humanity
>From the top of a mound defended by a machine-gun post on the
outskirts of the town, the Peshmerga watch the Isis front line, which
is in a treeline and an abandoned village in the middle distance.
They speak respectfully of the deadly accuracy of Isis snipers, but
the Peshmergas' morale has rebounded since they fled before the
advance of small Isis units five months ago. Dasko, one of the
Peshmerga fighters at the post, said that "American air strikes will
prevent Daesh [the Arabic acronym for Isis] from advancing again".
Timeline: The emergence of Isis
The return of Kurdish self-confidence may be premature. Isis may be
feeling the strain, but is by no means on the run. In the past six
weeks it has captured most of Anbar province, covering a great swathe
of western Iraq, defeating the Iraqi army in a series of engagements.
It has inflicted savage punishment on the Sunni Arab Albu Nimr tribe
which fought against it in central Anbar. The tribe says that 497 of
its members, including 20 women and 16 children, were executed by Isis
in massacres aimed at deterring other tribes from resisting Isis. The
Albu Nimrs' desperate appeals to Baghdad for help in the shape of
weapons, ammunition and air strikes met with no response.
In the wake of these defeats, the new Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider
al-Abadi, has this week purged the top command of the Iraqi army,
sacking 26 senior officers, retiring another 10 and making 18 new
appointments.
Among those removed is General Rashid Flaih, head of the Anbar
Operations Command, who presided over a series of debacles that has
left 80 per cent of Anbar under Isis control. He had been criticised
for failing to get supplies to a besieged Iraqi army base at
Saqlawiyah, north of Fallujah, whose 700-strong garrison he described
as "whingers". It was ultimately overrun in a surprise assault on 21
September by Isis fighters in disguise, wearing Iraqi army uniforms
and driving captured American Humvees. The garrison thought this was
an Iraqi army relief force until it was too late.
Since then the Iraqi army's position in Anbar has continued to
deteriorate. An aid worker says that "some 100,000 people are besieged
and entirely cut off by Isis in the Sunni city of Haditha on the
Euphrates. The US air force dropped some 7,000 meals but they have
received no other supplies." General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the
US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress this week that 80,000
efficient troops would be needed to defeat Isis.
Armed Kurdish fighters who oppose Isis in Kobani last week; their
heroic defence of the town has won them plaudits Armed Kurdish
fighters who oppose Isis in Kobani last week; their heroic defence of
the town has won them plaudits (Getty Images)
If Isis is overstretched, so too are its opponents, particularly the
Kurds who have to defend a 650-mile-long frontier with the new
"caliphate" declared by its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on 29 June. A
leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two main
Kurdish parties, Saadi Pira, says that "on 10 June we woke up and
found we had a new neighbour in the shape of Isis, whose territory
stretches from Iran to Syria".
He believes that Isis is weaker than it was at the height of its
success, when it had won an unbroken series of military victories and
was generally supported by Iraq's Sunni community, which had been
persecuted by the former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during his
eight years in power.
Mr Pira says: "The Sunni community was willing to co-operate with the
devil to punish Maliki." Many Sunni may have come to regret their
previous support for Isis, but they are equally terrified of the
return of the Iraqi army, the Shia militias or the Kurds.
The Isis force that captured Makhmour on 8 August was only about 150
strong, according to Porat, an official of the Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) at a Turkish Kurd refugee camp at Makhmour, whose
inhabitants fled from Turkey in 1998.
A peculiarity of this part of Iraq is that the political and military
situation in every district is determined by the varying local
political, ethnic and sectarian balance. In Makhmour, the 12,000 Kurds
in the camp are an important factor in the local balance of power. The
PKK evacuated them in the face of the Isis offensive, but summoned
some 200 PKK guerrillas from their base in the Kandil Mountains in
north-east Kurdistan who had plenty of recent military experience in
fighting the Turkish army. Fighting together with the Iraqi Kurdish
Peshmerga, the PKK drove Isis out of the town.
For long ignored or demonised by the rest of the world, the PKK
militants unexpectedly find themselves lauded for their heroic defence
of Kobani, Mount Sinjar and towns like Makhmour. At the entrance to
their camp workers were labouring yesterday to build a large plinth
for a statue or picture of their leader, Abdullah Ocalan, imprisoned
by Turkey since 1999.
The leader of the Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
delivering a sermon at a mosque in Iraq. The leader of the Islamic
State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, delivering a sermon at a mosque in
Iraq (AP Photo/Militant video, File)
The Iraqi Kurdish authorities are somewhat irritated by the praise
being lavished on the PKK's military prowess but for the moment fear
and hatred of Isis is a strong bond for all the Kurds. One PKK
official in Makhmour said, "I should really thank Daesh because they
have united the Kurds and publicised our cause before the world."
Najat Ali, the Kurdistan Democratic Party commander in Makhmour, says
that Isis is weakened by being no longer able to use its captured
heavy artillery and Humvees because of US air strikes. Knowledge that
US air power is protecting them had done a lot to raise Kurdish
morale. He says: "Isis's psychological tactics, spreading terror
through their atrocities, no longer works as [they] once did."
The recapture of Baiji refinery after months of fighting would boost
the morale of the Iraqi government, though its most effective units
are often Iranian-backed Shia militiamen.
Each side, if it concentrates its forces, can punch through the thinly
held battle lines anywhere in Iraq and win a local success.
But such is the degree of sectarian and ethnic hatred that these
little victories lead to mass flights of people who support the losing
side.
--
Peace Is Doable
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