Frag Out! Magazine

so certain of that. "At night, they always know exactly where we are." During the day things are calm, which might be due to ISIS taking cover. "In the villages we retake, we often find tunnels, sometimes almost a mile long," another volunteer tells us. That's how the Jihadists hide, because of the air superiority of the coalition forces. "Around here, we had two JDAMs," we are told. When things get hot, small teams of JTACs show up and make sure the guided bombs with 500 to 1,000 kilograms payload land on target. It might be French, British or Canadian lads… Behind the wall, we can see wide and beautiful plains. It looks peaceful. "Over there, where you see the dogs running around, that's where the dead terrorists are," one of the Kurdish soldiers points out, when talking about the last attack that was repelled. On the way back, things also seem peaceful. The first hamlet is right behind the outpost. Children are playing in the street, women stand by their front door. "The volunteers are very important to us," the Iraqi General tells us. "They help us keep those villages and the people safe!" Some of them are Yazidis. And it is well known, how ISIS deals with these "infidels". The western volunteers, especially those with prior service record, also bring a lot of experience with them. "The Kurds are brave and good soldiers," one of them tells us. But they lack the military know-how necessary for more complex tactics. And one thing they are in desperate need of is heavy weapons. "We are really grateful for the international support, especially lately from the Germans," General Aras confesses. We saw an MG3 belt-fed machine guns and a brand new H&K G3 while with the Peshmerga. But the Bundeswehr's training of native instructors, who then act as multipliers and go out to train the Kurds on the front lines, does seem to have its pitfalls. We hear a story, where one Kurdish fighter complains about the laser of his H&K G36 not working. Being told, that the G36 does not have an integrated laser, he points at the red dot sight... An additional problem is the amount of ammunition that came with those weapons. This is less a problem for the G36, which uses the NATO standard 5.56x45mm round, but there is not enough 7.62x51mm, used by the older G3, to go around. Also the costs of war are not to be underestimated, especially in the current recession that the Kurdish region faces. AK start at around 550 USD. A round (of 7.62x39mm) goes for a buck a piece. For those wanting the deluxe edition, it takes about 8,000 USD for an M4 to change hands, plus 100 Dollars for (empty!) mag. The German reassurances that the G36 will not end up in the wrong hands seem a bit shallow. In Erbil the G36 is valued higher than the M4, so the cut to be made in selling such a weapon is substantial, and certainly highly tempting. The soldiers and fighters we encounter make a very diverse impression. Going just by the looks: most of the best and uniformly equipped Kurdish solders are seen in Erbil, guarding either public or private REPORT

• Cover