'Our priority is to arm the Peshmerga'

Kurds plead for more weapons to take on ISIL amid tensions with Baghdad over the role of the Peshmerga.

Baghdad - The mandatory involvement of Kurdish Peshmerga forces on the front lines in the fight against The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has highlighted a significant shortage of weapons, equipment and training, according to Kurdish officials and lawmakers. It also raised serious questions over the Peshmerga fighters' ability to take on ISIL. "We were shocked and did not expect that they [ISIL] would attack us," said Shamel, a 50-year-old Kurdish fighter in al-Khazer, a town 30km west of Erbil as he recalled how Peshmerga fighters were defeated by ISIL while advancing towards Erbil in early September. "They were everywhere and most of our fighters could not even stand for hours. Our ammunition ran out and no reinforcements arrived so we abandoned our positions," Shamel told Al Jazeera on the phone from Erbil. The defeat, according to Shamel, was in large part a result of a severe shortage of munitions to the point that: "Our slogan was one shot per head."  While Peshmerga forces have controlled vast areas outside the boundaries of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, the war against ISIL has, nonetheless, exposed the limitations of their equipments and training. In early August, Kurdish troops collapsed under the advance of ISIL fighters, who by June had captured wide swaths of land in northern and western Iraq and seized weaponry from Iraqi troops who abandoned their position in Mosul.