Text and Photography by Manu Brabo/MEMO
IRBIL, Iraq, May 2016 - The 1st Battalion, 46th Infantry Division of the peshmerga army is deployed outside this city, on the approaches to several villages held by the Islamic State. Nine miles away are the outskirts of Mosul, which ISIS has controlled since its troops overran the Iraqi Army there in June 2014.
Capt. Deshat, a veteran peshmerga around 40 years old, commands this little outpost, on a long front that runs through a valley ringed by mountains where the peshmerga, the fighting forces of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government, have stationed their artillery. Just 500 meters separate the Kurdish positions from the nearest outpost of ISIS militants. A soldier scans the horizon with binoculars and points out a black flag on the roof of a low concrete building. According to the peshmerga troops, ISIS fighters are armed with mortars, artillery and rocket launchers, but they mostly keep their heads down as coalition aircraft patrol overhead.
Even so, the peshmerga keep a high alert. Their commanders have warned them of a possible counteroffensive by ISIS fighters who are being pushed back toward Mosul.
Life in this outpost is tedious, a routine of training and marksmanship contests, with breaks for cigarettes and tea. The artillery fire overhead, and from time to time the troops reposition, moving the front a little closer to Mosul.
The nighttime silence is broken by shots, as a sentry spots ISIS troops approaching. Two flares illuminate the landscape, and the soldiers run to their positions. Machine guns rattle, and shouts ring out. After 20 minutes of shooting, the skirmish is over, although shooting continues down the line at other outposts, and tracer bullets draw red lines in the darkness.
The tension remains. The watch has been reinforced, and for the next two hours, sporadic mortar fire falls on the ISIS positions just to remind the enemy: The peshmerga are there, waiting for the order to launch the attack to retake Mosul.
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