Kurdistan's female fighters

The BBC published a story 15 July 2014 at www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east/ describing how the Kurdish Peshmerga security forces have within their ranks elite units of highly trained female fighters.

At a military facility on the outskirts of Sulaimaniya, BBC reporter Shaimaa Khalil met with members of one of these all-female units, as they prepared to go to the frontline of a simmering conflict with Muslim jihadist terrorists from the Islamic State (IS) insurrection in Iraq and Syria.

The Peshmerga say they are determined to protect Kurdistan and the Kurdish people

The unit commander, Col Nahida Ahmed Rashid, told Khalil the unit was formed in 1996 to "fight loyalists of former President Saddam Hussein", and is made up of several hundred fighters, all volunteers.

"They've been trained with SWAT teams and with the special forces. Some have already fought alongside their male colleagues on the frontline and I'm sending others to Kirkuk soon," Khalil quoted Col Rashid as saying.

The women will be part of a mission to secure the city of Kirkuk and its surrounding oil fields

"They've taken up arms and gone to battle to protect Kurdistan, but also to say that there's no difference between men and women," Col Rashid says.

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Looks like the Kurds are serious about defending their homeland. My guess is any Iraqi soldiers or IS rebels who take on these Peshmerga fighters will be running into the teeth of the tiger.