Where are you on air strikes? Brigadier Amir Ahmed is desperate for more of them. He watched a missile land in northern Iraq three days ago and tells me that the US-led coalition is hitting the right targets.
I am chatting with this Kurdish commander while hiding behind earthworks that have been dug along a canal, south-west of Kirkuk. All around us is the detritus of war – discarded plastic bottles, bullet casings, human faeces and burnt-out military vehicles. The black flag of the so-called Islamic State (IS) flutters like an Unjolly Roger across the canal from us, a mere 25 metres away.
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