The Independent is reporting that the 36th battalion, composed of Iraqi Arab and Kurdish peshmerga militia , has mutinied. The battalion has been fighting alongside the Marines in the siege of Fallujah. The Independent reports that the Marines separated out those who would fight from those who wouldn’t.
The battalion may have split along ethnic lines. Its soldiers were recruited from the militiamen of the Iraqi political parties which belong to the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, and about half were Kurdish soldiers, known as peshmerga. The Kurds were prepared to fight but Iraqi Arab soldiers said they had had enough. Those who refused to fight were withdrawn from the battlefield for retraining.
The speculation about the peshmerga fighting against the Arabs alongside the Americans is confirmed repeatedly.