I took this pic today when I saw some of the few trees anywhere around. Robar150 (his Iranian bike) said not to turn right [because] I’m living in the desert about 30 miles north and west of the front line with ISIS in what looks like a landscape out of a Mad Max film — burning garbage everywhere, abandoned buildings, refugee camps, hot baked pothole roads, military vehicles interspersed with the traffic, Apache and Blackhawk helicopters periodically passing overhead. This place has really gone downhill since my last visit.
But it’s not all doom and gloom…
1st pic — catching a ride from just north of Mosul back to Erbil, with some Iraqi Special Forces guys who are Arabs from Mosul, on leave for the end of Hajj holiday here, and looking forwards to liberating their city from ISIS. 2nd pic — mountains north of Dohuk (I was getting tired of the desert around where I’m living, so I went on an outing). The smoke you see above and to the right of the Kurdish flag is from Turkish air strikes on PKK positions. 3rd pic — Hiking with a Kurdish friend who works in the U.S. consulate in Erbil.