Aging Peshmerga veterans

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters—“those who face death”—are legendary. For generations, they fought Iraq’s rulers. More recently, the war against Islamic State brought many aging Peshmerga out of retirement to join the fight alongside Baghdad’s forces.

Dusting off their old rifles, these senior citizens have returned to the battlefield in droves to fight for their homeland. In Tuz Kharmato, Cetti-Roberts met several returnees serving under Abdulla Musla Boor, an old general known as The Dark Lion.

For many of the veterans, this war was their last.

This summer, Saadullah attended the funeral of Sebri Bamerni, who returned to Kurdistan from Germany to fight the Islamists. A Russian jihadist shot him in the back near Mosul Dam.

Saadullah also profiled Fakhir Barwary—a Peshmerga who had fought for Iraq’s national army during the U.S. occupation. The Americans had nicknamed him “Crazy Fakhir” for his habit of disarming improvised bombs by hand.

Barwary lost a leg in Mosul. But when Islamic State invaded, he volunteered to clear booby traps—while walking on a prosthetic limb. He and two of his nephews died trying to disarm a bomb the militants left behind in a civilian’s house.