Jash (), or "" or The Light Regiments or fursan is a type of collaborator, usually a military unit composed of people of Kurdish descent that cooperates with enemy combatants against the Kurdish Army, Kurdish rebels, or the Kurdish civilian population. The term is considered derogatory in a cultural sense, in much the same way as the use of the term ''

quisling ''Quisling'' (, ) is a term used in Scandinavian languages and in English meaning a citizen or politician of an occupied country who collaborates with an enemy occupying force – or more generally as a synonym for '' traitor''. The word or ...

'' in the

Western world The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania.

History

The Light regiments were first established in the 1940s, during the

1943 Barzani revolt The 1943–1945 Barzani revolt was a Kurdish nationalistic insurrection in the Kingdom of Iraq, during World War II. The revolt was led by Mustafa Barzani and was later joined by his older brother Ahmed Barzani, the leader of the previous Kurd ...

in northern Iraq, then it flourished and start to take an important role in the 1960s during the

First Iraqi–Kurdish War The First Iraqi–Kurdish WarMichael G. Lortz. (Chapter 1, Introduction). ''The Kurdish Warrior Tradition and the Importance of the Peshmerga''. pp.39-42. (Arabic: الحرب العراقية الكردية الأولى) also known as Aylul revo ...

, when General Khaleel Jassim was in the command of these regiments and associated them with many

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces ( Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), or the Iraqi Army ( Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was known as the Royal Iraqi Army up until the co ...

operations against the Kurd rebels, specially in

Amadiya Amedi or Amadiya ( ku, ئامێدی, Amêdî, ; Syriac: , Amədya), is a town in the Duhok Governorate of Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It is built on a mesa in the broader Great Zab The Great Zab or Upper Zab ( (''al-Zāb al-Kabīr''), or , ...

in 1965 and

Rawandiz Rawandiz ( ar, رواندز; ku, ڕەواندز, Rewandiz) is a city in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, located in the Erbil Governorate, close to the borders with Iran and Turkey, it is located 10 km to the east from Bekhal Waterfall. The ...

1966. During the

al-Anfal campaign The Anfal campaign; ku, شاڵاوی ئەنفال or the Kurdish genocide was a counterinsurgency operation which was carried out by Ba'athist Iraq from February to September 1988, at the end of the Iran–Iraq War. The campaign targeted ru ...

, the military campaign of genocide and looting commanded by

Ali Hassan al-Majid Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti ( ar, علي حسن عبد المجيد التكريت, ʿAlī Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Majīd al-Tikrītī; 30 November 1941 – 25 January 2010), nicknamed Chemical Ali ( ar, علي الكيمياوي, ʿAlī al-Kīm ...

, al-Majid's orders informed ''jash'' units that taking cattle, sheep, goats, money, weapons and even Kurdish women was legal.Jonathan C. Randal, ''After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness?: My Encounters with Kurdistan'', 356 pp., Westview Press, 1998, , p.231 The term "Jash Police" was used by the Kurds towards the Iraq's local Kurdish police militias in 1944. In the latter half of the 20th century, Kurds who became collaborators with the

Iraqi government The federal government of Iraq is defined under the current Constitution, approved in 2005, as an Islamic, democratic, federal parliamentary republic. The federal government is composed of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, as ...

were referred to as ''jash''. The number of jash increased to "as many as 150,000 by 1986" as a method of avoiding military participation in the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. It began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for almost eight years, until the acceptance of United Nations Security Counci ...

. The jash then realigned with the rest of the Kurdish people during the 1991 Kurdish uprising. It has been stated by a number of Kurds that "the jash had been completely forgiven".

References

{{Reflist Ethnic and religious slurs Kurdish culture Treason

History

See also

References