Iraqi Kurdistan faces up to Isis threat

摘要

US president Barack Obama is authorising US air strikes in northern Iraq against the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham(Isis)as its advances threaten the Kurdis-tan region and its oil fields. The US is also expediting military supplies to Kurdish peshmerga forces,whose light arms have proved no match for the heavy artillery used by Isis.The Islamist group has taken the towns of Sinjar,Zummar and Qaraqosh,and by 7 August was about 40km southwest of Erbil—the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region and home to the Kurdis tan Regional Government(KRG).Isis has also seized three more small state-run North Oil(NOC)fields—Ain Zalah, Batmah and Sufayah,which were producing a combined 30,000 b/d—and a 10,000 b/d topping plant at Kasak.