Last year's sweeping offensive by Islamic State group militants through northern Iraq thrust one community in particular to the fore — the Kurds.
As Baghdad's power withered under the assault, Kurdish leaders spoke about transforming their semi-autonomous status into full independence. Backed by U.S. airstrikes, Kurdish fighters, known as the peshmerga, emerged as one of the most effective counters to the jihadis, they were lavished with Western praise and military aid.
Eighteen months later, the governor of Irbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government, admits that some peshmerga are fighting the Islamic State group without being paid on time.