Kurdish forces play waiting game on northern front

ON a scrap of paper, the Kurdish commander drew a line representing the northern front. Then Majid Harki wrote a single word he repeats often to his frontline fighters: “suber” — patience.

"We pick the time and place to strike," he said after helping US Special Forces pinpoint Iraqi gunners near a strategic crossroads about 55 miles south-west of Mosul. "We want to be a sharp blade, not a bulldozer."

Out of necessity, this has become the battlefield doctrine in the north, limited operations but controlled by US strategy.