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Muslims, Sunni Muslims, and Kurds.
The rise of ISIL presents the Kurds with both opportunity and
risk. As ISIL forces captured Iraqi cities and villages during 2014,
the soldiers of the Iraqi Army fled, setting off a military collapse
through the region. Kurdish fighters, known as peshmerga, recov-
ered and by engaging with ISIL managed to prevent Iraq from dis-
integrating completely. But in the process the Kurds claimed con-
trol of lands that had ben claimed by both Kurdistan and the gov-
ernment in Baghdad. As the fighting continued, the leader of
Kurdistan’s regional government, Masoud Barzani, told the local
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Kurdish militias, known as peshmerga, have defended cities like Kirkuk and Erbil from the Islamic
State invasion when the Arab-dominated Iraqi Army abandoned their posts. That has led to concerns
that the Kurdistan region may break away from Iraq and form an independent state—a prospect that
would be unpalatable to neighboring Turkey, which has its own restive Kurdish population.