Pissed Off Turkmen Want Their Town Back - War is Boring
An Iraqi Turkmen militiaman stands on a black Ford F250 Super Duty and stares off into the distance. In front of him, there’s the front line in the war with Islamic State. Three Islamic State fighters approach the front line — a sandy berm stretching into the distance on either side of the miltiaman’s position. IS is notorious for using teams of suicide bombers, so the Turkmen fighter. It’s early April and beyond the earthen berm, less than a mile away, is the Islamic State-held town of Bashir. The town sits around 10 miles southwest of Kirkuk. The fighters occupying the front line here are mainly Shia Turkmen from the local area working as part of Iraq’s predominantly Popular Mobilization Forces — also known as the Hashd Shaabi. Although they inhabit areas across central Iraq, many lived in villages to the south of Kirkuk before Islamic State came. Bashir is widely considered the heart of the Iraqi Turkmen community. But in 2014, Islamic State swept through Iraq. “When ISIS took Bashir, 23 people were killed, including women and children,” Abdul says — while surrounded by Turkmen Shia fighters. “I am from Bashir originally,” Abdul, who is Turkman Shia himself, says. Source: medium.com
