As ISIS War Picks Up, Peshmerga Moves Violently Against Arabs

The growing ISIS war against Iraqi Kurdistan is fueling an ethnic divide between Kurds and Arabs, and increasingly, that violence is playing itself out at Kurdish checkpoints manned by Peshmerga fighters.

Peshmerga fighters are openly beating Arabs they believe to be ISIS, and it doesn’t take a lot of evidence to convince them of that.

McClatchy reporter Mitchell Prothero reported the Peshmerga cheerfully dragging an Arab out of his car at a checkpoint, roughing him up and throwing him into their trunk. “He’s Arab, talks like he’s from Mosul and had a Qu’ran in his car,” one declared. That’s all it takes.

The Arab-Kurd divide is a long-standing regional problem, and seems to be getting worse as the latest war picks up pace, and fuels more refugees from the front line.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.