海角大神

Bulldozers with steel plates welded over their cockpits to thwart snipers are digging earth berms and trenches here, creating聽the new front lines of northern Iraq.聽

Kurdish peshmerga units began a week ago pushing beyond a line 20 miles southwest of the oil city of Kirkuk, which Kurds have held since last summer when Sunni militants swept into Iraq from Syria. The Kurdish fighters' aim is to聽squeeze the self-styled Islamic State between them and a parallel offensive by the Iraqi Army and allied Shiite militia to the south that has encircled Tikrit.

The multi-pronged fight is a major test for reconstituted Iraqi forces. When IS jihadists seized the northern city of Mosul last year, entire Iraqi Army divisions disintegrated. Today, the momentum appears to have shifted:聽US officials estimate that IS today has lost 25 percent of the territory鈥攏early 5,000 square miles鈥攊t held at its peak last August, when it declared an Islamic caliphate.

Kurdish forces, aided by US-led airstrikes, say they are making far faster progress than they expected 鈥� up to 15 miles in some places 鈥� across the flat ground carpeted with spring green. They've been capturing villages laced with booby-traps and car bombs.

聽鈥淭hey are fighting hard and have readiness. We have martyrs and wounded, and this is a real sign,鈥� says Wasta Rasul, the Kurdish commander of southern operations. IS forces聽鈥渁re retreating and they are not the same IS they used to be. I think in the next few days IS will not exist in the Kirkuk area.鈥�

The Kurds want to push IS out of artillery range of oil and gas installations here, and squeeze them between Tikrit and Kirkuk. Using binoculars and targeting scopes from the top of the freshly dug earth berms, Kurdish fighters watch the nearby village of Tal al-Ward. Wounded peshmerga from the fight鈥攕ome of them screaming鈥攁re driven quickly by in the back of trucks.

About 50 wounded are brought to Kirkuk hospital by dusk on this day alone, and an unspecified number of dead. One Humvee limps by, bulletproof windows impacted by rifle shots, tires shredded by a roadside bomb. Another Humvee is towed, its tire rubber flapping uselessly in the dirt. The sound of US warplanes circling high above lasts for hours.

鈥淚f the airplanes don鈥檛 support us, we can鈥檛 advance,鈥� says one Kurdish fighter, sharing a common refrain. 鈥淭hey are retreating...we are weakening them,鈥� says Lt. Col. Bakr Ahmad, who juggles a radio and mobile phone, and is tasked with calling in coalition airstrikes. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 forget the role of the alliance鈥攖hose planes make a big difference,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen I need them I ask and they do it.鈥�

From a state to a terror group

Last summer Kurdish fighters set up defensive lines southwest of the strategic oil town of Kirkuk, near the Lower Zab canal. Eight months ago 鈥淸IS] were attacking us, now we are attacking them,鈥� Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, told a forum held last week in northern city of Sulaymaniyah. 鈥淚f the strategy is to weaken them, they are weaker. If the strategy is to turn them from a state to [only] a terrorist organization, we are on the path.鈥�

Yet without defeating IS in Syria, warns Mr. Hussein, the jihadis will keep coming back to Iraq. Already some 20,000 foreign fighters from 90 different countries have joined IS in Syria and Iraq, 鈥渕any of them" seeking suicide operations, said Brett McGurk, the US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Iran and Iraq, speaking at the same forum. The map of anti-IS forces advances show 鈥渉ow the tide is slowly starting to turn.鈥�

Kurdish forces have a 鈥渧ery solid defense line鈥� and US-led airstrikes give 鈥済reat confidence鈥� to the peshmerga as they advance, agrees Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Yet IS remains potent,聽despite an estimated death toll from US-led airstrikes of 6,000, as of a few months ago.聽Within a week recently the group launched 10 major attacks with 100 to 200 fighters each. Each attack formation was decimated by airstrikes and ground forces. 鈥淭he refreshment of this movement is higher than anyone thinks, and as a result there is no military solution," warns Mr. Knights.聽

Secret tunnels and suicide attacks

IS has a few tricks up its military sleeve. Several bodies still rot amid the rubble of Dur al-Kahraba village, which Kurds took control of last week. Three houses down from a small mosque the Kurds found a surprise: an 8-by-8-foot hole dug in the living room of a house that leads into a 150-yard-tunnel that nearly reaches Kurdish trenches. All other rooms were full of dirt, in a bid to hide the excavation from view.

鈥淭his is IS, this is how they were thinking,鈥� says Shukur Abbas, who in charge of the bulldozers building trenches and flattening recaptured villages.聽

At night in Kirkuk at the hospital, the emergency entrance is a constant hive of activity, as casualties are driven in and relatives arrive, often in tears.聽

Fadhil 鈥淗ama Jaff鈥� was wounded in the blast of a suicide car bomb, as his Kurdish unit鈥攂uoyed by days of swift progress鈥攁ttacked an IS-controlled village that morning.聽鈥淭hey were fighting hard,鈥� says Mr. Fadhil, speaking from his hospital bed. 鈥淎ll at once they stopped shooting at us, we thought they were retreating. We advanced and they sent an SUV鈥攚e were surprised.鈥�

Another Kurdish fighter, Bakhtiar Jabar, jumped out of the Humvee and fired his heavy machine gun at the oncoming vehicle, but it was armored and the bullets had no effect.

Mr. Jabar was struck with shrapnel in his side, and that night in the intensive care ward said repeatedly: 鈥淚 am in pain. I am in pain.鈥� Such events are no surprise to commander Rasul. 鈥淪cientifically, I haven鈥檛 seen anything special about their [IS] fighting ability,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey are here only for suicide.鈥�