The Kurds Trying to bet ISIS Have Lots of Other Problems

[Anthea]

Bloomberg

The Kurds Trying to Beat Islamic State Have Lots of Other Problems

They’re the West’s best hope. But Iraq’s Kurds have economic and political issues to deal with.

Last year’s sweeping offensive by Islamic State militants through northern Iraq thrust one community in particular to the fore – the Kurds.

As Baghdad’s power withered under the assault, Kurdish leaders spoke about transforming their semi-autonomous status into full independence. And as Kurdish fighters, known as the peshmerga, backed by U.S.-led airstrikes emerged as one of the most effective counters to the jihadists, they were lavished with Western praise and military aid.

Eighteen months later, the governor of Erbil, capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, admits that some peshmerga are fighting Islamic State without being paid on time.

That’s just one aspect of the deepening economic and political crises roiling the Iraqi Kurdish region, putting its ambitions at risk.

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