BAHRA, Iraq: Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighter Hakar Mustafa trades his Kalashnikov assault rifle at night for a notebook and pen, learning reading, writing and math near the front line held against brutal jihadists.

The 21-year-old is one of dozens of members of the autonomous Kurdish region’s peshmerga forces studying at a school in the northern Iraqi village of Bahra, some three kilometers (two miles) from the closest Islamic State (IS) group position.

Premium + Digital Edition

Ad-free access


P 80 per month
(billed annually at P 960)
  • Unlimited ad-free access to website articles
  • Limited offer: Subscribe today and get digital edition access for free (accessible with up to 3 devices)

TRY FREE FOR 14 DAYS
See details
See details