by MATT CETTI-ROBERTS

“When I shoot, the top of the rifle flies off,” Mahd Abdul Basit, a 28-year-old Peshmerga fighter told me while we stood a few hundred meters from Islamic State’s front line.

Unlike many Kurdish troops, who must purchase their own weapons, Mahd’s rifle — a taped-up Kalashnikov appearing to be made from several different rifles— was issued to him, and could still one day cost him his life.

Mahd stood in one of the Peshmerga’s newly-built fortifications, known as “citadels.” The sandbagged position, just 15 days old, is one of many that now punctuates the arid flat land on the front line southwest of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Before January, this was Islamic State territory. A Kurdish offensive drove the militants back several kilometers — and both sides dug in for a long fight. Islamic State fighters are now entrenched about 800 meters away from the position, and still definitely a threat.

Coalition air strikes, advisers and weapons are helping, but the coalition’s strategy for arming the Kurds has been criticized for worsening divisions in the already fractured Peshmerga. During a recent visit to the front line, we had a chance to observe the situation directly.

A trickle of Western weapons have circulated among the Kurdish troops — but they’re still not enough. Most Peshmerga fighters still rely on ancient Kalashnikovs that have suffered through decades of wear and tear. Soldiers are going months without pay.

But if the fighters have few decent weapons, they have fewer good options. If Islamic State breaks through the lines and the Kurdish cities fall, their families would almost certainly be killed or enslaved.