As they gear up for a major assault against the Islamic State, Kurdish fighters known as the Peshmerga are calling for the provision of heavy weaponry for their forces.
The Peshmerga is one of the most active fighting forces in the war against the Islamic State. They were instrumental in recapturing the strategic Syrian border town of Kobani in January, and have taken on the defence of the southern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
They have been defending Kirkuk since June last year after the ISIS scattered elements of the Iraqi government forces that initially held the city.
Over the weekend, Islamic State forces clashed with Peshmerga forces in their headquarters in the village of Sultan Abdullah as well as the Makhmour front. The Kurdistan Democratic Party's Foreign Relations Office claimed that more than 60 militants were killed during Sunday's engagement.
Three brigades of Peshmerga fighters are also tapped to join the upcoming major offensive against ISIS.
In an article in The Guardian, Peshmerga leaders reported that coalition leaders have denied the Peshmerga's call for heavy weaponry.
"We asked the UK for some of their weaponry from Afghanistan," Masrour Barzani, chancellor of the Kurdish region security council, told The Guardian. "We were prepared to buy it, but instead we find it is being sold elsewhere and denied to us."
Much of the decisive weaponry sought by the Peshmerga were instead routed to Baghdad and the Iraqi army.
Although it has provided the Peshmerga with 40 heavy machine guns and ammunition, Britain has said that further deliveries of war material to the Kurdish fighters will be channelled through the Iraqi government in Baghdad.
Western countries in the coalition against the ISIS refuse to supply the Peshmerga with decisive weaponry over fears that the Iraqi Kurds could be empowered to claim sovereignity from Iraq once the ISIS is defeated. However, Barzani dismissed that view.
"Anything above the Tigris river, we have taken it, but we are not aspiring to a greater Kurdistan," he stressed.
He also emphasised the need to come to an understanding with Baghdad about the Iraqi Kurds' goals and aspirations.
"We are talking about Iraqi Kurdistan. We have to convince the countries that we live with that it is in the interests of everybody. We have to convince Baghdad through an understanding," Barzani said.
