As operation to retake town from ISIL begins, debate on who will govern after the armed group's defeat heats up. Kirkuk, Iraq - "Our next war is with the militias, probably not the Iraqi army but the fighters who want to kick us out of our own land," said the Kurdish Peshmerga soldier as we drove out from Kirkuk city and headed to the front line near ISIL-held Hawija.
You see, after the referendum, we will stand by people of Kurdistan in all areas who vote for staying as part of Kurdistan," he said as the road got bumpier and we came closer to the outskirts of Kirkuk.
It's one of the contested places in northern Iraq where a referendum for independence is to take place on September Blast-wall barricades stretch as far as the eye can see on the banks of one of the small tributary canals, we drive on one of the only remaining bridges which connects the other side of the river bank. As we drive past the destroyed bridges on the other side of the barricade wall, the Peshmerga tell us that ISIL fighters are a few kilometres from here and continue to mount attacks.
In May, two suicide bombers were able to traverse all these barricades and check posts and carry out an attack on a military base. That's where our Peshmerga military escort joined us.
Sentries on an elevated post were on lookout duty at the last defence line between the Peshmerga and ISIL fighters. The ISIL positions are about two kilometres away we were told as we climbed up the structure made of mud, probably just a visual defence against ISIL snipers.
