MANTIQA, Iraq (AP) — Behind the wall of sandbags at the end of a narrow bridge in northern Iraq, a man in a black ski mask paces back and forth, brandishing a machine-gun and poking the barrel above the wall. Alongside him, a second militant in a red and white turban waves angrily. A third looks across the bridge with binoculars.

“If they shoot one bullet at us, we’re going to return it with five,” said Lt. Gen. Bapir Sheikhwasani of the Kurdish peshmerga militia as he tracked the Islamic State fighters through his own binoculars. “They are not the type of people who are up to stand against the peshmerga.”