Clashes Continue as Frontline Tension Escalates: The Battle for Iraq (Dispatch 4) VICE

Published on Jun 26, 2014

Subscribe to VICE News here: http://bit.ly/Subscribe-to-VICE-News

As the Kurds move further into Iraq's disputed territories, not everyone is thrilled. In towns closer to Baghdad with higher Arab populations, like Jalawla and Sadiya, they have encountered fierce resistance from militant Sunni groups. While Kurdish peshmerga forces have been welcomed in many areas, they've needed to fight to enter others.

In our fourth dispatch amid the escalating crisis in Iraq, VICE News embedded with the peshmerga as they struggle to maintain control over their land, as tension in Iraq heightens between its main ethnic and religious factions.

We also spoke with a Sunni tribal leader in Kirkuk about the recent Kurdish takeover and the strategic importance of the city, and with Kurdish soldiers about why they volunteered to fight — and how they are successfully fending off advances from ISIS and the Iraqi Shiite military nearby.