Abdullah is one of a few dozen peshmerga stationed on Mount Zartak, overlooking Mosul from the east. The city is still firmly under the control of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but the peshmerga are in buoyant mood, having first stemmed and then partially reversed territorial gains made by ISIS last summer.
They expect much more fighting ahead, and from the generals to the volunteers, they all lament a lack of modern weapons that would help them take on ISIS. Abdullah said he would have happily showed us how his old gun worked, but he had only 20 shells left.
On Saturday, clutching AK-47s and more ancient rifles, Abdullah and his fellow fighters gazed into the sky and watched the arc of vapor trails as coalition planes hit ISIS targets all around Mosul. Kurdish fighters told us it was the heaviest day of bombardment they had witnessed. We heard well over a dozen loud detonations to the east, but their exact points of impact were difficult to determine through the haze.
The peshmerga defensive positions on the mountain are well-fortified, with lines of sandbags and concrete bunkers, and a track carved into the mountain slopes for access. The Kurdish flag — red, white and green horizontal stripes with a 21-point yellow sun — flutters above. The fighters said that ISIS occasionally launched Katyusha rockets at their positions, but most fell short.
The situation of peshmerga on the plains below is more precarious.
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The Iraqi army, supported by Shia militia, is involved in combat in Anbar province, far to the west, and has pushed ISIS units out of Diyala, to the north of Baghdad. But in this part of Iraq, the peshmerga — supported by airstrikes of growing intensity — are the ones inflicting real damage on ISIS. And once the terrorists are defeated, the Kurds might be in no mood to compromise on their hard-won gains. Ministers, soldiers and ordinary civilians speak of Iraq becoming a loose confederation, but taking orders from Baghdad is not on their agenda.
Ten years ago when I first visited Irbil, the seat of the Kurdish Regional Government, it was a bustling but provincial town. Now dozens of cranes dot the skyline as apartment blocks and office complexes are built. A new ring road is being constructed. Oil is the basis for this new-found wealth, but construction and trading companies are also flourishing. Electricity and water flow uninterrupted. Flights from Europe and the Middle East arrive daily at the new airport.
“Soon this will be like Dubai, but in the mountains,” said one Irbil resident — without a hint of hyperbole.
But first the enemy that a few months back was just 20 miles from the gates of this city must be vanquished.
