Kurdish rivals unite to fight Islamic State
The President of Iraq's Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, visited fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for the first time last week, after the PKK joined Kurdish Peshmerga forces to expel the Islamic State group from the town of Makhmour. In a video published online, Barzani thanked the PKK fighters: "We are brothers. They [Islamic […]Wladimir van Wilgenburg writes for Al Jazeera:
The President of Iraq's Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, visited fighters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for the first time last week, after the PKK joined Kurdish Peshmerga forces to expel the Islamic State group from the town of Makhmour.
In a video published online, Barzani thanked the PKK fighters: "We are brothers. They [Islamic State fighters] are the enemy of the people of Kurdistan. We have one destiny; we will do everything, what we can," Barzani said. But some analysts said the public pronouncement could complicate relations between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Turkey, which has fought a decades-long war against the PKK, a Kurdish armed group operating primarily in the country's southeast.
