peshmerga
The Legendary Tribe That's Fought Everyone from the Ottomans to ISIS
The centuries-old Hamawand tribe clashed with the Ottomans, the British, and Saddam. Now they're fighting the Islamic State—with American help.
Kurds Fighting the Islamic State Are Trying to Navigate Between the US and Iran
On the front line of the battle against IS, Peshmerga fighters say they're earning international support for a Kurdish state. They may be wrong.
The Girl Who Ran Away to Fight ISIS
Joanna Palani was only 22 when she left her comfortable life as a college student behind in Denmark to join up as a YPG and Peshmerga fighter on the frontlines of the war in Iraq and Syria. She tells us how ISIS soldiers are "easy to kill."
Introducing 'ISIS Crisis': The Strategy Board Game the Canadian Military Could Use to Fight the Islamic State
A new report from the research wing of the Canadian military suggests that table-top board games could force military planners to think through their decisions in foreign intervention.
Video Footage Emerges of Islamic State Firefight That Killed US Navy SEAL
The video allegedly shows the firefight in northern Iraq where Islamic State forces overran Kurdish Peshmerga troops and their American advisors.
What It's Really Like to Fight for the Islamic State
VICE News has obtained battle footage taken from the headcam of a dead Islamic State fighter. Here's what you won't see in IS propaganda.
Quick Hit: First Female Kurdish Military Officers Graduate
The military academy is the only institution recognized by the Iraqi armed forces.
Iraq's Military Launches a Long-Term Operation to Retake Mosul
Iraqi officials say they will retake Mosul this year but many question whether the army, which partially collapsed when IS overran a third of the country in June 2014, will be ready in time.
"Life In Mosul Was Pretty Hard" Says American Islamic State Defector
Mohamad Khweis, a 26-year-old from Virginia, surrendered to Peshmerga militiamen near Sinjar in Iraq on Monday. In a heavily edited interview, he spoke to Kurdish TV about life in Islamic State's self-styled caliphate.
An American Defected From Islamic State and Was Captured By Kurds
Kurdish sources say the US citizen and IS defector mistakenly believed he was at the Turkish border when really he was in Kurdish territory in Iraq.
Bored French Soldiers Are Traveling to Iraq to Fight the Islamic State
VICE News met with three former French soldiers who left France to help the Kurdish Peshmerga battle Islamic State militants near Mosul.
Joe Biden Says the PKK and the Islamic State Are Equal Threats to Turkey
During a joint news conference with Turkey's prime minister, the US vice president described the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as a terror group "plain and simple."