At the age of 62 Mam-Rasool, or Uncle Rasool as the men call him, has lived through two wars, three forced resettlements and more battles with Saddam Hussein than he cares to remember. For many years he hid in the mountains of Northern Iraq with other Kurdish freedom fighters battling it out with Saddam's forces as a Peshmerga. Mam-Rasool smiles when asked what  
and fast steps. The heavy equipment seems feather light on Mam-Rasool's back and he reaches the demarcated minefield on top of the hill in no time.


His large nose and ears have turned red in the cold and his breath comes out in small white clouds. He quickly unpacks his equipment consisting of a thin metal

  

Peshmerga means. He looks to the ceiling and squints as he recalls his days as a guerrilla fighter."Peshmerga," he says, "means someone who is prepared to die…" He thinks for a short while and corrects himself: "No, it means sacrificer… no saviour."
"Rumour has it
that there is
a bounty on our
heads"
 stick used to prod the ground, marking tape and a one metre long measuring stick. In one moment he turns his head as if he has picked up a scent. He takes a deep breath and nods: "It will snow later today," he says. Having spent the most part of his life in the mountains he is in his element.  
 
earing a traditional Kurdish outfit, consisting of a pair of baggy trousers, a tight belt and
waist coat on top of a cotton shirt, Mam-Rasool nimbly leaps up a steep hill side with a seldom seen ease. His scarf is wrapped like a turban around his small red hat and bounces up and down in sync with his small 		 

 

Although the allied forces have set up a no fly zone over Northern Iraq and a de-facto independent state has sprung up, for Mam-Rasool the battle is far from over. The many years of war, first against Iran and later the Gulf War, have left deadly legacy. An estimated 15