Word: peshmerga
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...They mostly blended into Ansar, which, with help from Baghdad, has used brutal tactics to try to impose Islamic fundamentalism on the secular Kurds. There are no noncombatants here. One morning, while in a position being bombarded by mortars for six hours, one of the local fighters known as peshmerga told me, "These bombs don't recognize your identity." Territory shifts frequently. The day before the blast, the checkpoints were manned by a local fundamentalist militia, known as Komal, which is allied to Ansar and protects its northern flank...
...missiles silenced the Ansar mortar batteries. One impudent mortar that opened up a few hours later was taken out by a U.S. warplane. The peshmerga cheered the missiles and spent the day sunning themselves on the grass. Translated literally, their name means "those who face death." Tragically, I learned this applies to journalists...
...Ansar's best assets are their snipers. The day before, a single shooter halted an entire advance of Kurdish soldiers, known as peshmerga ("those who face death"), belonging to the pro-American Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the main Kurdish political parties. The American commandoes have taken to calling the P.U.K. "the Puck" and the Peshmerga "the Pesh." "We were doing well until that sniper," a Special Forces soldier tells his buddy. "I wanted to drop some mortar on top of him but the pesh were too close." On this day's battle, three American snipers lay behind...
...full of deep caves and secretive routes for escape and supply (nicknamed "rat-lines") across the rugged frontier with Iran. "They're ex-filling across the Iranian border," says one Special Forces soldier, using commando lingo for "escaping." For despite the acumen of Ansar's snipers, the peshmerga offensive had succeeded and hundreds of Kurdish troops-along with about 100 American commandoes-advanced into the terrorist stronghold. "My perception is that Ansar's delaying action was not as effective as they thought it would be," says Mark. "They didn't account for our air attack hitting them in front...
...peshmerga are as tough as Ansar is ruthless. "These guys literally walk up the mountain, get wounded and walk back down," says a U.S. medic. "They're tough sons of bitches." On Friday, as the medic worked at a casualty collection point, he says one wounded Kurdish soldier with a head wound simply straggled in, walked up and just "died...