Iraqi Kurdish fighters dealt setback in Pentagon budget

The Donald Trump administration seeks to slash salaries for Iraq’s peshmerga forces by more than half in next year’s budget.

The Pentagon’s budget blueprint for the fiscal year beginning in October cuts stipends for the Kurdish fighters from $290 million down to $126 million. The money covers salaries, food and fuel as well as equipment spread out among 12 Kurdish brigades “to increase peshmerga pressure” on the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS), according to the budget.

The Defense Department is framing the cut as a move to have Baghdad increase its contribution as Iraq looks to integrate the Kurdish units into the national military force. The Iraqi parliament approved a $112 billion budget in January that partly covers peshmerga salaries in the latest sign of warming ties between Baghdad and Erbil.

The peshmerga remain “vital partners to achieve the enduring defeat of ISIS,” said Cmdr. Rebecca Rebarich, a Pentagon spokeswoman. “We were pleased to see funding for Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) salaries in the 2019 Iraqi government budget.”