The president of Iraqi Kurdistan on Friday slammed the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) for excluding the Kurds from an organizational meeting in London this week, noting that his hard-bitten peshmerga fighters had proven themselves the only capable force on the ground to combat the armed group. “We were expecting everyone to show respect to the sacrifices made by the people of Kurdistan and its peshmerga [fighters] by inviting a representative from Kurdistan to this event and similar such events,” Massoud Barzani said in a heated statement, as translated by Kurdish Rudaw news. The peshmerga “are the most effective force countering global terrorism today,” he added. “It is unfortunate that the people of Kurdistan do the sacrifice and the credit goes to others.” It’s not clear why the Kurds were snubbed at the London conference, though many suspect it could simply […]